I always like to highlight neat things happening across the city, so I was particularly pleased to see one of my former students, Brian Gregg, raising money for an AAU basketball team here in Camden. I went ahead and donated, and promised him if he shared some more details with me, I’d pass them along to all of you. Here’s what Brian had to say:

Just to give a few more details, Aaron Clark (the older brother of one of my former students) started Land of Opportunity Sports a year or two ago and since then they have been creating travelling flag football teams in the spring for youth in Camden (he is a Camden resident). He asked me to coach a few times, and I know nothing about football, but told him I’d love to coach a basketball team. So now, here we are, trying to get an AAU 8th grade boys basketball team up and running. I have coached AAU before and know that my players had to pay nearly 600 each in order to play. Knowing that this is not feasible for many people (and despite that, their talents are no less), I wanted to try my best to fundraise as much of the costs as possible so that their ability to play was based on their work ethic and skill rather than their parents ability to pay. 

We don’t have a date for tryouts yet, but most likely a weekend towards end of Feb, and look to have about 10-13 boys on the team. I love basketball and know that you learn so much more than just dribbling or shooting a ball – the life lessons that you can learn through playing basketball are endless and I hope that there will be a group with this opportunity!

There are a lot of things I like about this project, but perhaps my favorite is that Brian is connected into local Camden infrastructure. He’s not trying to start something on his own that will die once he leaves campus. Instead, he’s developed relationships and sees a role where he can help build out a program that is already growing here in Camden. What an inspiration (imagine if those coming to run our schools, or companies receiving tax credits, chose to do the same?). I know firsthand how hard this is to do, and admire Brian for building relationships over the last few years that allow him to do this right.I’ll stop there and leave it to Brian to make the ask: 

https://t.co/7dMwF73X3o Please consider supporting!!!

— Brian (@bdotgregg) January 15, 2015