Shoe-In for Kids in Othello

When Kraken colleague Andrew Bloom asked kids attending Saturday’s combined ball hockey and Brooks running clinics whether they’d ever played hockey, most answered that, yes, they had in physical education classes at school. Bloom smiled about that as the day’s action unfolded at the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in the city’s Othello neighborhood.

“I didn’t hear that two years ago,” he said.

Bloom has been an integral leader in donating ball hockey equipment to local schools and parks programs as manager of social impact and youth access for the Kraken and its One Roof Foundation philanthropic arm. ORF has donated more than 350 ball hockey kits (sticks, balls, nets, and other gear) in the Pacific Northwest community.

Still, there was at least one outlier among all the hockey-knowledgeable youngsters at Saturday’s event.

“One mom came up to me to say she signed her son up for the clinics because he had tried football, basketball and baseball but never hockey,” said Thad Teo, director of development for community health and health equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, who was helping oversee the clinics. “Her son didn’t know anything about the sport, but he checked it out on YouTube and is happy to be here.”

First, the kids, big and small, checked in to receive an event t-shirt and a new pair of Brooks running shoes before heading to the Odessa Brown facility’s indoor gymnasium (more about the wondrous gym in a minute). They participated in shooting, stickhandling and passing drills led by the Kraken community activation team and an animated goalie, Joey Daccord, just back from Team USA’s Winter Olympics orientation camp.

“That shot was a laser beam!” a mic’d up Daccord exclaimed to one youngster amid other choice commentary and compliments. “Oooh, what a nasty one-timer!” he told another.

Then, while helping teach technique at the passing station, he offered up, “I like your hair,” and “We’ve got some players here!”

A bit later in the drills, Buoy made a surprise entrance and, well, all activity stopped for a few moments as smiles and laughs abounded. The Kraken mascot joined the passing drills with several extremely happy kids and Daccord, who loudly proclaimed: “Buoy was chased by a bear this summer so he’s decided to get in better shape – he’s been working out on the treadmill!”

Taking to the Track in ‘Brooks Beasts’ Mode

Next, the girls and boys headed outside to the running clinic on the facility’s soccer field, joined by special guest and professional runner Valery Tobias of the Brooks Beasts Track Club. The elite 800-meter competitor, a recent runner-up at the 2025 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, had observations of her own about kids’ excitement as they transitioned from indoor ball hockey to outdoor running that included warm-up exercises, a group jog and relay runs.

“I appreciate having these opportunities to reach out to the community and bridge those gaps of physical activity among kids,” said Tobias, 24, who starred at the University of Texas-Austin. “I get to introduce these kids to running as a sport they might like in the future, and at least get them moving in any case.

“That’s just so special to me, because I was talking to some of the kids and they were excited to be playing hockey and running,” she added. “They were out there saying, ‘I get to do this!’ One boy said it helps with his therapy. Others were telling me, ‘Oh, I love running’ and ‘I’ve been doing running my whole life [this from an eight-year-old, prompting a big grin from Tobias].’ Love for a sport starts there, and I am so happy to be here to close the gap. I didn’t know about any track clubs or clinics like this when I was a kid.”

About Odessa Brown and Her Legacy

The Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic has been a pillar of health care for the community since its original building opened in 1970, with benefactors that included former Seattle Sonics star player and NBA champion coach Lenny Wilkens and his wife, Marilyn J. Reed. In fact, the gym is named the Lenny Wilkens Recreational Space. Teo said Saturday he took cellphone photos of the ball hockey drills and an ensuing spirited scrimmage because, “Lenny is always happy to know about the physical activities here at the clinic.”

Odessa Brown was born in Arkansas in 1920 before moving to Seattle in 1963, where she supported her four children as a community organizer for the Central Area Motivation Program while also working as a beautician. She pushed relentlessly for the creation of an accessible health care facility for children in South Seattle, advocating primarily to the Seattle Model Cities federal anti-poverty agency. Her diligence was finally rewarded when the agency decided to develop such a clinic at a time when Brown was simultaneously battling leukemia. Brown died in 1969 at age 49, and when that new clinic opened the following year, it was named in her honor.

About That Wondrous Gymnasium

Also on hand Saturday was Dr. Monique Burton, a pediatric sports medicine specialist who grew up in the Central District and is a proud graduate of Garfield High School. She was a driving force behind adding the indoor gym as part of the new Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, which opened in 2022 on South Othello Street.

“I was fortunate enough to be part of the planning process for this building,” said Burton, a volunteer physician for the U.S. track team at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. “We really wanted to create a space where people can move. As a sports medicine physician, I very strongly believe that everybody should have the opportunity to move.

“We do see very active people who are involved in high-level sports, but I believe every kid should have the opportunity to be able to move their body in the way that is best for them. We wanted to create a space where everybody can have access to do some type of activity.”

Burton said the gym is intended for all sorts of healing and healthy outcomes. “It’s a really cool space we get to use in innovative ways throughout our day,” said Burton. “For example, someone may come in for a behavioral health visit. Young patients can come down here with a therapist and play basketball, shooting baskets, and not realize they're actually getting therapy at the same time.”

The gym aligns with an overall mission for the newest facility associated with the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic heritage, which has been fortified by a longstanding association with Seattle Children’s Hospital.

“The Odessa Brown clinic serves the entire patient population,” said Burton. “We serve people from all different backgrounds, all different communities. We have an underserved population and a very diverse population of patients that come from all over the county to be able to access the many services that we have here.”

Taking a Holistic Approach to Child and Family

Burton emphasized the clinic is proactive about treating the whole child, which can lead to impressive outcomes for the patient and family.

“You can come into the clinic for a dental visit or a sports medicine visit, and in that same visit, the patient or a family member might share something that leads to a resource, such as providing clothing or a behavioral health intervention,” said Burton. “We have an incredibly diverse group of medical providers here. We also have social workers and care coordinators committed to all the needs of the patient. A parent might come in for a well-child visit and end up leaving with information about resources in the community for food or housing.”

While preparing to watch the kids, Daccord and Buoy partake in last Saturday’s high-energy scrimmage, Burton added that the joint ball hockey and running opportunities fit along those multi-purpose clinic benefits as well.

“Today we have an amazing opportunity for kids in our community to experience the joy and fun of movement by interacting with the Kraken and Brooks.”