On the weekend that marks the three-year anniversary of Evanston teen Dajae Coleman’s death, members of the community, his family, friends, former classmates, mentors and teachers gathered to honor the teen and the positive values he espoused.
The third annual DaeDaeWorld Weekend, which was held Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, offered the community a moment to reflect on Coleman’s life, his love of family and basketball, in addition to providing a peaceful couple of days during a weekend that was, three years ago, marked by tragedy, said Coleman’s mother, Tiffany Rice. The event occurred this year after a recent spate of gun-related violence in the city.
The 14-year-old Coleman, who was just beginning his freshmen year at Evanston Township High School, was gunned down in September 2012. In the wake of his death, Rice started the Dajae Coleman Foundation, which hosts the annual DaeDaeWorld weekend, in addition to providing scholarships and initiatives to benefit the city’s youth.
The finale of the two-day event pitted Coleman’s friends, many of whom were once his basketball teammates, against his former teachers, coaches and friends of the family in their third and final basketball game.
The game held at Evanston Township High School was particularly special this year because it will be the last, Rice said. The members of DaeDae’s Disciples, the younger of the two teams, will be graduating from high school at the end of this school year, she said.
“This is (Coleman’s) graduating class,” Rice said. “So this year we’re highlighting that and focusing on that group, the seniors, this year. Those are the kids who were most impacted by his death.”
DaeDae’s Disciples won their final game against Team Old School 53 to 49 on Saturday.
Nick Rock, a friend and former teammate of Coleman’s and a member of DaeDae’s Disciples, said the win and the opportunity to play meant a lot to him.
A senior at Loyola Academy, Rock described Coleman as a “great kid” who valued school, basketball, his friends and family, a person he said had a tremendous amount to offer the world.
Gun-related violence has continued in Evanston even after Coleman’s death.
Since the end of July, three people were fatally shot in the city, and 10 more reported injured in shootings. The Evanston Police Department recently launched a “violence reduction strategy” in the wake of an uptick in gun violence. As a result, police patrols in areas typically affected by shootings have increased, and officers are actively engaging residents in those areas by visiting parks, places of worship, businesses, schools and homes, police said.
When asked for her opinion on the department’s recent initiative to reduce gun violence in the city, Rice said, “that’s a step in the right direction but the burden doesn’t just lie on the police.”
A statement from Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, published last week, echoed Rice’s remarks.
Tisdahl said “keeping Evanston safe is everyone’s business” and she called on the community to help assist the city in its efforts to stem the tide of violence by connecting unemployed young adults in the city with jobs, in addition to providing law enforcement with information about criminal activities.
DaeDaeWorld Weekend and the Dajae Coleman Foundation also have an important role to play in this effort, said Krenice Roseman, a member of the foundation’s board and an organizer for this year’s DaeDaeWorld Weekend.
Roseman said, at the very least, DaeDaeWorld Weekend sends the message to Evanston’s youth that “there are people in the community who care about them.”
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Using the foundation to promote peace and reduce violence in Evanston is something Rice said she’d like to do on a more active basis in the future.
“It will take multiple approaches to actually stem what’s happening here,” she said. “I do see us possibly being a bit more active in that area. I just haven’t figured out a way yet, but it is a goal of mine.”
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.