Family, Friends Launch Foundation Honoring Dajae Coleman

Holding signs with words like “Empower” and “Encouragement,” friends and family gathered in Mason Park Saturday to raise awareness of a foundation set up in honor of Dajae Coleman.

The 14-year-old Evanston Township High School freshman was shot and killed in a case of mistaken identity near the high school last September. 

Asked what Dajae would think of the gathering, his mother, Tiffany Rice, said her son would be excited to see so many people working on something positive. 

“He’d be so happy that people are coming together,"  Rice said. 

Rice started the Dajae Coleman Foundation as a way of encouraging kids to live out the most positive qualities that Dajae embodied, including his dedication to his studies, his commitment to basketball and his friendly personality, she explains. 

“This is an extension of him,” said Rice.

The foundation is planning a “DaeDae World Weekend” from Sept. 20-22 that includes a family fun night, basketball skills camp and donors reception. Rice has also started a summer book club that will include books by Dajae’s favorite author, Walter Dean Myers. The last four books Dajae checked out from the library were on display Saturday, including The Beast, by Myers.

“We’re picking up where Dajae left off, because he didn’t get a chance to finish these novels,” Rice said. 

Sunday’s gathering took place inside the field house at Mason Park, just past the basketball courts where Dajae once played as a little boy.

“When they first built this park I had him and my other grandson out there,” recalled Dajae’s grandfather, Michael Rice. 

Michael Rice said he hoped the foundation would help put a stop to the violence in Evanston, where a man was charged with firing a gun outside the high school last week.

“Something needs to be done,” he said. “Hopefully the children will see what’s happening and realize the mistakes that are happening.”

Monique Parsons, chief operating officer of the McGaw YMCA, said she joined the foundation because she, too, hopes it will have an impact on children throughout the community. Her son is the same age as Dajae, and played basketball with him for years.

“I joined because something needed to be done in his honor,” Parsons said. “DaeDae was a good kid and doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing.”

Parson said her son and Dajae’s other friends on the basketball team still wore his number (3) on their shoes, and her son was still wearing a red bracelet in Dajae’s honor, with a message that had mostly faded out.

“It’s hard, and continued violence makes it even that much harder,” she said.

Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl attended the event on Saturday, and said she encouraged her fellow community members to get involved. 

“I’m here because DaeDae was a great kid and his life should be celebrated,” she said. “His mother is doing great things for the community.” 

For more information about the DaeDae World Weekend or to make a donation, visit the Dajae Coleman Foundation website.