Positive People in Pinecrest – Daniel Bravo

Positive People in Pinecrest - Daniel Bravo
Positive People in Pinecrest - Daniel Bravo
Daniel Bravo

Christopher Columbus High School senior Daniel Bravo volunteers at Blue Lakes Elementary School helping teachers with special needs students.

“I help with tutoring there,” he says. “I’m a teacher’s assistant. I’ve been doing that ever since I was a kid I was helping out but I was doing service hours since ninth grade.”

Bravo says he loves working with the kids and so he continued volunteering there since it was close to Columbus.

“On days I’m off (school) I do go,” he says, adding that he steps up his volunteer time after football season.

He also volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club on Kendall Drive. He’s already recorded more than 800 volunteer hours and hopes to reach a thousand.

Going to Columbus is another reason for his strong community service. Bravo’s dad graduated from the Catholic high school so he wanted to attend.

“I took the test and made the Maus program,” he says. “We go on special Maus retreats. We concentrate on service.”

He is working on his own community service project called Youth Engaged in Sports Safety (YESS).

“I’m hoping to spread awareness about sports injuries,” he says. “I see so many injuries that are preventable.”

Prevention begins with teaching the kids who to properly engage in the sport but also teaching the child to think about what they are doing. He’s concerned about injuries such as concussions ATL, neck injuries, spinal, and cardiac problems.

“With the help of my parents I have been able to make it a non-profit,” he says. “I have a lot of students who are interested in sports safety and changing rules.”

At the start of youth football season, he went to games and sports jamborees and setup a booth promoting YESS to talk to parents and kids about sports injuries.

“I have some posters with information,” he says. “It’s mostly my word of mouth and me going to people and talking to a group of people, getting them motivated and signed up.”

His interest in sports injuries was sparked by watching one of his teammates get badly hurt.

“Nobody knew what to do,” he says. “Nobody taught this kid proper technique. Luckily my dad came in. Since that injury, my dad, at the Kendall Boys and Girls Club, my dad’s best friend is the commissioner there, he makes sure they have a doctor.”

He’s also seen injuries at the high school level.

“One of my teammates had a bad spinal injury and we thought he might not be able to walk again but he was able to heal. But it was preventable, his injury.”

He says when teens start talking about something, it goes viral.

“I feel like the awareness part will be easy,” he says. “I talk to kids all the time who want to join the club. They know that sports safety is important and it needs to be done but people don’t talk about it all the time.”

He built a website, YESSYouthSports.wix.com/YESS, to help spread the word.

At Columbus, Bravo is a fullback on the football team and he recently joined the rugby club. He’s also in the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society.

For college, he’s already been accepted to Florida International University. He’s applied to most of the Florida schools including FSU, UF and the University of Miami. Other schools on his list include Wake Forest and Penn State.

He plans to study medicine and is considering becoming a pediatrician or a dermatologist.

Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld


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