Generations can be short in East Palo Alto, but legacy lasts long. That’s why hundreds of eight-to-18-year-olds sit in a dozen semi-straight lines, each line behind a coach at the Davante Adams Youth Football Camp.

They have heard the name of the NFL star all their lives. Their parents cheered Adams during the childhood they shared with him and later while watching Packers games on TV, and now the next generation is shouting, “Davante Adams! Davante Adams!”

Then, their hero, their parents’ hero, takes the field and starts to slalom those lines of campers, who wait impatiently to touch greatness. Fortunately for them, Adams at age 32 maintains the 4.56 40-yard-dash speed he showed at the NFL’s 2014 Draft Combine. He had explained as much the day before in an interview with Michael Silver of The Athletic that I arranged to happen at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula’s East Palo Alto clubhouse, which a generation ago helped cultivate Adams’ athletic ability.

Now, at the camp across Highway 101 from East Palo Alto, which notoriously divides the haves from have-nots, Adams slows to a slightly sub-4.56 pace on the immaculate turf football field of Palo Alto High School, which he led to the 2010 state championship as a starter at receiver and defensive back. Adams damn sure daps each outstretched hand in every low-five line.

With the precision of the pass patters he runs on Sundays, Adams keeps this route at just the right speed. After all, he’s just getting warmed up. He has to save some bursts for the miniature touch football games he plays with every child in camp.

And he will need more speed for the one-on-one match-ups with each player the camp coaches name as a “superstar.”

But the Davante Adams Youth Football Camp is not just about the sport. He also expends energy on encouragement (below, in the form of singing “Happy Birthday” to a camper) and the life lessons he shares with every player who comes through his station.

A Davante Adams homecoming feeds the souls of East Palo Alto. He pours into the community, just as the sweat pours off of him during four straight hours as the most active person in camp. And that Taco Bell truck in the background feeds the bellies of East Palo Alto with all the free food anyone could eat.

Generations of young fans and younger fans walk away that day fulfilled.

Those in attendance at the Boys & Girls Club clubhouse the day before had a similar experience. Even without athletic exploits and the thrill of football as a hook for teaching life lessons, Adams kept it real in this interview with Celena, winner of the club’s Youth of the Year honor.

And he did the same with me during this interaction, when work was play.