Athletes Shoot 'Hoops from the Heart' on MLK Day

During its regular weekly meeting, , Delaware County Council announced the return of a cooperative initiative with the Community Action Agency to raise funds for low-income residents in the county.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day basketball players in Delaware County will raise funds and food donations for the Community Action Agency (CAADC), the county’s anti-poverty agency that helps families and individuals become self-sufficient.

The MLK Day of Service initiative “Hoops from the Heart,” was started in 2002 and has since raised $50,000 for CAADC programs, a county press release states.

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

Council members will collect and deliver food donations and visit the clinics in Delaware County Community Service vans.

Council was joined at the Jan. 11 meeting by CAADC Director Ed Coleman and Haverford College women’s basketball coach Bobbi Morgan to announce the event on MLK Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 16.

Coleman credited Debbie Lamborn, CAADC senior manager of development, and Coach Morgan for spearheading this effort to involve young athletes in a day of service to help Delaware County residents in-need.

The men’s and women’s basketball teams at each school conduct the Jan. 16 clinics, which are open to boys and girls in grades one through eight.

All proceeds raised during “Hoops From the Heart” benefit CAADC programs, which include emergency housing, social services, employment training and life skills training.

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 63rd and Market streets, Upper Darby, and houses 50 individuals and serves over 160 residents each year.

On Jan. 16, Delaware County Council Chairman Tom McGarrigle, along with new Council members Colleen P. Morrone, John P. McBlain and David P. White, will take a Community Service van to pick up the food donations at each basketball clinic and deliver them to the Life Center. They are partnering with Lamborn 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.,” Councilman White 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 11th annual “Hoops From the Heart” event contact Debbie Lamborn at CAADC, 484-802-7708.

Councilman Mario J. Civera Jr. will attend the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast on Jan. 16 at the Drexelbrook, hosted every year by the Community YMCA of Eastern Delaware County, Christ Lutheran Church, Prayer Chapel, and area schools.

He plans to join other council members at the Life Center in Upper Darby to assist in delivering the food to the emergency housing program.