Solid Ground’s PJ Jones wins trip to Super Bowl LVII
By Anne Bowhay, Grants and Communications Director
Last week was the best ever for Phillip “PJ” Jones, a new resident at La Casa Norte’s Solid Ground.
The 19-year-old was one of six youth who – after writing essays for CHAMPS Male Mentoring – won an all-expenses paid trip to see Super Bowl LVII in Phoenix last Sunday.
“I had a week to write it and I was stressing,” said PJ. “I didn’t know where to start. I asked people around me and they said, ‘Man, just be you.’ I was glad I did that, because I won. I actually jumped up and down!”
PJ Jones at the Super Bowl
The trip meant traveling with CHAMPS teens who are “becoming my brothers, and it was my first time on an airplane,” chaperoned by mentors Vondale Singleton, Sr. and Kareem Wells. Thanks to travel and ticket costs donated by motivational speaker Eric D. Thomas, the group enjoyed a nailbiter Chiefs v. Eagles game and an exciting half-time show by Rihanna – capped off by a late-night electric scooter ride around Phoenix.
Back in Chicago, PJ’s housemates hung out together in the kitchen, sharing snacks, watching the game on TV, and trying to spot PJ in the crowd, says Solid Ground Supervisor Eric Gonzalez.
PJ says the year is off to a great start, starting with his move to Solid Ground in early January.
An aspiring chef, PJ made friends sharing his cooking skills with housemates at the Humboldt Park facility. A favorite dish is PJ’s stuffed chicken breast with spinach.
“He’s an amazing cook and he plated it real nice,” Eric adds.
A senior at West Town alternative high school, PJ will graduate this spring with plans to enter a trade school to study business and culinary arts. He aspires to one day own his own restaurants and properties, building a business that could fund a charity “like Solid Ground, for people who have no place to go.”
PJ with CHAMPS mentors Vondale Singleton and Kareem Wells
The youngest of six, PJ was a 7th grader when his mom died. After that, he lived with some of his supportive older siblings. PJ says that with families of their own to care for, he recently convinced them he was prepared to go out on his own. Along with school and CHAMPS activities, PJ works part-time for a security company, a job Eric helped him find.
To add to PJ’s exciting week, he was one of the CHAMPS members invited Tuesday to a Chicago mayoral candidates forum, hosted by Lil Durk. Excited to meet the rapper, PJ is proud to have asked candidates what they’d do to create vocational opportunities “for kids who don’t want to go to college, because everybody needs a path in life.”
Adds an upbeat PJ, “It’s been an amazing week. I never had a week like this – not yet anyway. But I’ve got better to come.”
PJ with his CHAMPS brothers and rapper Lil Durk