Julius Thomas Inspires The Community With An Investment In Education


Julius Thomas is just 28 years old and, from a football perspective, the talented tight end has plenty left in the tank to accomplish quite a bit over the final years of his NFL career. However, Thomas is not waiting until retirement to make an impact off the field – and the Miami Dolphins tight end is practicing what he preaches in the form of real community investment.

Thomas is the co-founder, along with his mother, of Reading Equates To Success, a non-profit with the stated mission to “spread inspiration and create a desire for learning.” Recently, Thomas put his words into action during a visit to the Juanita Tate Academy Charter School in south Los Angeles, and his actions were captured on video as he spoke to and interacted with various students and staff at the facility.

“I don’t know if I’m going to reach every kid,” Thomas said, “but if I could reach a couple every single team, how great of a feeling would that be? To be laying 90 years old in a bed somewhere thinking my time is coming to an end, but I’ve helped so many people. That’s really what is going to matter at the end of the day. That’s lasting.”

Those are the sentiments he expresses in his desire to improve and widen the educational landscape and it is an inspiring notion for a professional athlete before reaching the age of 30. Too often, both athletes and everyday people live in the now to the point where investment in the future is simply an afterthought. In the case of Thomas, it is utterly clear that he sees the future as a priority even now. And the leaders of both the country and individual communities will rise with intelligence and acumen as a result.

Thomas refers to Reading Equates To Success as a “grass-roots non-profit” in that it is not a sprawling operation. In practice, the organization exists to bring reading to schools and young people in a personal, on-the-ground fashion, and Thomas lays out the fact that the non-profit includes partnerships with schools for book drop-offs and big-picture donations from outside groups.

It is quite clear from both the video and his individual actions that helping to present education through reading and learning is vastly important to Thomas and that he takes it quite personally. Given the way the he ascended professionally from the relative obscurity provided by playing football at Portland State University, Thomas is a success story in a number of ways, but he also received a college education that can be put into practice well beyond the point of his retirement from the NFL as an active player.

Thomas indicates that his goal is to simply help the most people that he is able to and that message is both uplifting and coherent. One of the children interviewed on site during his Los Angeles visit shed light in saying, “I never knew that an athlete, or a football player, could be that interested in reading. I usually just see them play, so I never knew that. It just inspired me to work harder.”

The simple practice of showing up and investing on the ground level, without fanfare, isn’t lost on Thomas or Reading Equates To Success. The NFL tight end’s message to youth that they should not be scared to fail is also important, largely because of the sentiment he expresses that learning is often not considered to be a “cool” action as children process through the educational system.

With relatively simple actions like providing books, encouragement and a shining example, Julius Thomas is making a difference on a regular basis in schools across the country. His latest professional foray includes a trade that will send him to the Miami Dolphins and to a new community. Given his track record, it is safe to assume that Thomas will hit the ground running and the youth of South Florida will be motivated and galvanized as a result.

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