twenty months removed from the “start of something special,” Akita Donald still couldn’t find the words.
On June 22, 2019, her brother, Aaron, stood in front of 200 youth football players and spoke of hard work. Mr. Donald, the Los Angeles Rams star and former Penn Hills and Pitt standout, kicked off his AD99 Solutions Foundation that day, running drills and offering advice to players from ages 6 to 18.
Ms. Donald, the nonprofit organization’s executive director, recently called the event at Penn Hills’ Fralic Athletic Center “a beautiful way to roll out the foundation.”
“It was just awesome,” she added. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”
Thinking back on that camp was bittersweet in a way for her. It reminded her of the foundation’s roots, the early days when her and her brother’s vision was starting to come to fruition. But it also reminded her of the 2020 football camp that never was and the other in-person events that were canceled in the past year.
Mr. Donald, the NFL’s leader in sacks since he entered the league in 2014, is downright difficult for offensive linemen to stop. But even the three-time NFL defensive player of the year and his foundation were put off by COVID-19.
AD99 Solutions was “taking off,” Ms. Donald said, before the pandemic’s onset in March of last year. The foundation, which empowers and supports underprivileged youth in and around Pittsburgh, was initially “rattled” by event cancellations and the need to go virtual. But she said the nonprofit transitioned smoothly.
The foundation’s cohort program, named Prep Forward, pushed on. The mentorship of athletes from local high schools continued, with the foundation “holistically preparing each student and their families for the rigors of higher education, the demands of an evolving job market and the complexities of a changing world.”
Prep Forward’s lesson plan was mostly virtual but interactive during the hardships of the COVID-19 shutdown, featuring aromatherapy, yoga, even a lyrical battle between the students and their parents. Ms. Donald, her smile beaming through the phone, was proud to say that “old school” won out.
“During that time, we conversed with our families much more. We talked about it all. What are some of your battles? What are you happy about today? … Also, we did it with the parents. Like, we know it’s hard with multiple kids. What are some of your struggles?” said the mental health therapist with a master’s degree in professional counseling. “It was hard. We’re all individually working through our own stuff. But our goal is to create an ecosystem among each other. And when everything happened with the pandemic, it was evident our ecosystem is functioning.”
Adding to that ecosystem, AD99 Solutions introduced two new programs during the pandemic: the Community Defense Project and Mental Flex Forum.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Community Defense Project ensured thousands of masks, gloves and meals were distributed throughout Allegheny County’s most vulnerable communities. The endeavor “was all Aaron,” his sister noted. The foundation also provided funds to Woodland Hills High School to purchase computers for students who needed them, easing the transition into virtual learning.
The Mental Flex Forum, meanwhile, was a free virtual education series open to co-ed student-athletes ages 13 to 18. Weekly one-hour sessions over a seven-week span provided more than 200 participants with information on a wide range of topics, including nutrition, financial literacy and female empowerment.
Mr. Donald hosted the first session himself. His topic was resilience, and he asked the students about their experiences while talking about a few of his own.
Of course, his resilient approach is a primary reason he’s in the position he’s in now, going back to his high school days. Despite garnering all-state status as a junior and senior at Penn Hills, he was a lightly recruited three-star prospect in the 2010 recruiting class. Pitt was one of only two Power Five schools to offer him a scholarship, Rutgers being the other.
In his senior season with Pitt, he posted 28.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks, won four national awards and was unanimously named All-American. He was selected by the Rams in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft and, in August 2018, signed a six-year, $135 million contract with Los Angeles. But even then, he never really moved on from Pitt.
In April 2019, he gave a seven-figure financial gift to the university, the largest ever by a former Pitt football letterman. To honor him, the Panthers renamed the ground floor of its Duratz Athletic Complex on the South Side the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center.
“Aaron Donald is a legendary football player, but he’s also a legendary human being,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said at the time. “Aaron is the toast of Los Angeles, but he’s still a Pitt and Penn Hills guy at heart. He’s humble, hardworking and has never forgotten where he came from.”
That hasn’t changed, either. The future of AD99 Solutions is evidence of that.
Now that there’s a “little bit of light at the end of the tunnel” with the pandemic, Ms. Donald said, the foundation is moving forward with its plans to build its own local headquarters. The facility will serve as a campus with classrooms and office space, as well as a sports complex. The foundation is still in the early stages of identifying its ideal location, but Ms. Donald hopes to see real progress within the next year.
In the meantime, AD99 Solutions will keep the Mental Flex Forum and Community Defense Project going, with the latter serving on an as-needed basis. New students will be admitted to the cohort program in September. A clinic for inner city coaches will be introduced. And the football camp is scheduled to return to the Fralic Athletic Center at Penn Hills High School this summer.
Due to COVID-19 protocols, the camp won’t have 200 athletes in attendance. It’ll be closer to 100, with parents likely relocated to a field over, Ms. Donald said. But the fact that it’s on the docket for June at all is a positive for the foundation.
Ms. Donald said she missed seeing her 285-pound brother acting “like a big kid” at the canceled camp last summer. But AD99 Solutions had to adapt amid the pandemic, and it made notable strides, she said. Now, she and her brother are eager to return to normalcy.
“We have a vision, and it’s so amazing to see it all come together,” she said. “COVID really impacted us. … But it’s coming along. Our vision is developing.”
John McGonigal: jmcgonigal@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jmcgonigal9.
First Published: April 4, 2021, 9:00 a.m.