MLK Day “Hoops From the Heart” benefits Community Action Agency of Delaware County

County Council joins CAADC and young athletes to raise funds and food donations

Basketball players across the county will drive to the hoop on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to raise funds and food donations for the Community Action Agency of Delaware County, Inc., the county’s anti-poverty agency that helps families and individuals to move toward self-sufficiency.

Called “Hoops From the Heart,” the MLK Day of Service initiative was started in 2002 and has since raised $50,000 for Community Action Agency (CAADC) programs that serve low-income residents in Delaware County.

Five basketball clinics will be held from 9 a.m.-noon Monday, Jan. 16, at Cabrini College in Radnor, Haverford College in Haverford, Neumann University in Aston, Widener University in Chester and Springfield High School.

The athletic staff at each school will conduct the clinics, which are open to boys and girls in grades one through eight. Bobbi Morgan, the women’s basketball coach at Haverford College, was one of the people who created the Hoops from the Heart program.

All proceeds raised benefit CAADC programs, which include emergency housing, social services, employment training and life skills training.

In addition, each athlete is asked to donate a non-perishable food item that will go to the Life Center of Eastern Delaware County, one of CAADC’s emergency housing programs. The Life Center is located at 63^rd and Market streets, Upper Darby, and houses 50 homeless individuals and serves over 160 residents each year.  The Life Center also operates a feeding program that serves 200 - 250 people daily.

Delaware County Council Chairman Tom McGarrigle, along with new Council members Colleen Morrone and David White, will utilize a Delaware County Community Service van to pick up the food donations at each basketball clinic and deliver them to the Life Center. They are partnering with Debbie Lamborn, CAADC Senior Manager of Development, to attend the clinics and collect the food donations.

“This is a great initiative that involves our youth in Delaware County, and benefits people in need, which are goals that embody the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.,” Chairman McGarrigle said. “Dr. King was committed to justice, to serving others and to ending poverty and this event, being held on a Day of Service in his honor, is a wonderful example of how our youth, our educational institutions and our communities can make a difference in people’s lives.”

 For information about the 11^th annual “Hoops From the Heart” event contact Debbie Lamborn at CAADC at (484) 802-7708.