Lemon Grove middle schooler Trevon Harris was remembered Tuesday night three years after he was struck and killed by a car. His memory is inspiring other kids, even those who didn’t know him.
"He had a smile that would warm your heart," Trevon's mother Tanya Harris said.
Now Trevon’s mother can only imagine her son’s warm smile when she needs cheering up. She wasn’t the only person in his life that saw Trevon for wiser and kinder than his years. His former Lemon Grove Recreation Center teammates saw it too.
"Every time I shoot basketball now, I think about him. Miss him, I’m sure we all miss him. We all miss him," a teammate said.
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Some of them joined the 50-plus people at Tuesday's memorial.
"Every time I played with Trey on the court it was always a good time. He was a great player, he had good hustle and off the court he was still a great person," another teammate said.
Three years ago, Trevon was playing in his front yard. Traffic investigators say he ran between two parked cars, slipped on loose gravel and fell in front of an oncoming car. At the time, his mother was just turning her car around to pick him up.
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While an outstanding athlete and student, Trevon’s mother says his greatest gifts were “the love that he had for life and love that he had for Christ," Tanya Harris said.
Harris’s life inspired this recently-released book called “Kicks." The local illustrator that created it wrote a dedication to Trevon after hearing the story about how Trevon once gave away a new pair of sneakers to a teammate.
"[For Trevon] to tell me that another kid needed it more than him, that is something," his mother said.
Trevon's death also inspired a 3-on-3 basketball tournament that gives hope to kids who shared Trevon's dream.
"To give hope to those kids that have a dream of one day playing in the NBC," Tanya Harris said.
Harris died at 6:50 p.m. that fateful night. The memorial ended with a balloon release at that very stroke of the clock.
Trevon Harris. Sorely missed, but not forgotten.
"When I look at his pictures and see him smile, it gets me to where he is saying, 'Good job, mom.'" Harris said.
Last year’s 3-on-3 tournament was canceled because of the pandemic. It was announced at Tuesday's memorial that the basketball contest will resume June 11 at Lemon Grove Recreation Center.
