McCraney, a skilled tailor, is launching a clothing line called PYMP Style (the acronym's short for People You Must Pray). She is acquainted with popular ex-Sonic Shawn Kemp, who still lives in the Seattle area and makes a handful of public appearances, and is eager to leverage that relationship to provide Pace with a stage for his boot camp exhibit, which she feels has "unlimited possibilities."
But for all the warmth McCraney feels toward her cousin, she often grows frustrated with his lack of perseverance. "He hasn't learned to follow through," she says. "I think the stumbling block is that he gets distracted, either by other people or new ideas. They're brilliant ideas; we've just got to get him to follow through."
Drew Mckenzie
Joe Pace in the U District with one of his talking robots.
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Pat Corning is not so sure. Corning first met Pace at a Chamber of Commerce meeting a couple of years ago (Joe attended as the guest of a Millionair Club director). At the time, Corning was working at a child development center in Shoreline, and Pace said he had a surplus of donated teddy bears back at his public housing quarters near Magnuson Park, where he lived for a short while. One day, Corning went to pick up Pace and his bears, and the gentle giant delighted the kids by distributing the stuffed animals as gifts. The bond between Corning and Pace was henceforth cemented.
"Pat and her husband kind of adopted me when I needed someone to be in my corner," says Pace, who has never had the means to go back east and visit either of his birth parents' graves.
Their relationship has evolved to where Corning has assumed the reins of Pace's fledgling Change of Pace Foundation. In this capacity, she sees Pace's robots as ancillary to her goal of getting him out on the public speaking circuit with substantial donor backing. (Corning hopes that Kupchak will agree to keynote a fund-raising breakfast for the foundation in early 2008.)
"My intent is to raise money for the foundation so he can go to the schools," says Corning. She admits she's never actually seen Pace's robots. "I told him I just can't get involved in that. If the robots are really cool, maybe they could be sold to benefit the foundation.
"I'm trying to look at the big picture," she adds. "The robots are kind of small picture."
But to Pace, the robots are about the only things that come into focus as he impatiently awaits his opportunity to bring Rudy and his cohorts into kids' lives, one he thought would come swift on the heels of Sharify's documentary. "I ain't no security guard," he insists. "I want to work with kids."
Proactively, Pace has shopped himself around with limited success, at times being shunned by potential partners who are fearful of his falling off the wagon. "I can understand that [attitude]," remarks Pace, "but you have to give a person a chance."
"I know he's run into some obstacles there," says Sharify. "But I wish that wasn't the case, because I think Joe would be amazing with youth. His story is inspirational, and I've seen him with kids. He's someone who would give his undivided attention.
"You want Joe Pace to succeed, but he's not a young guy anymore," adds Sharify. "He's got to get it together."
mseely@seattleweekly.com
