Bobcats Give Back At Hoops & Hope Dinner

By DeAndra Alex
bobcats.com

November 15, 2007

Bobcats players warmed the hearts of many underprivileged children as they hosted needy families from A Child’s Place at the Hoops & Hope Dinner on Thursday at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in SouthPark.

A Child’s Place is an organization that works to erase the effects of homelessness on children and their education by providing stable and appropriate education to homeless students. On this night, over 150 children and adults sat down to an early Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed face painting, balloon animal making and a visit from Bobcats mascot Rufus Lynx.

The children of A Child’s Place went into an uproar as they found out that their favorite Bobcats players would not only be stopping by to see them, but would also be staying around to visit and serve them dinner. The children and their parents where all smiles as Jared Dudley, Matt Carroll, Walter Herrmann, Jeff McInnis, Primoz Brezec, Ryan Hollins, and Emeka Okafor walked into the dinning room to greet them.

The night geared off with trays of turkey, stuffing and green beans being brought out to the hungry, bright-eyed children.

Hermann brought out the first tray with a look of pure delight as he claimed to have found a, “New job.” Carroll seamed just as excited as he followed, balancing his tray with one hand like a pro. As each player pitched in with the effort, the excitement from the children put the players into a genuine spirit of giving and happiness as the families began to eat and enjoy the hot meal that was placed before them.

“Seeing all the smiles on the faces of the people every time we came back and forth to deliver food, it just made me feel good to see how happy they were,” Carroll said.

Happy was an understatement for some of the children when Okafor sat down next to some of his biggest fans, who had earlier saved the seat next to them by putting Mek’s name on the reserved seat sign.

Hidden tears of joy also became evident on some parents’ faces while watching their children smiling and playing on full stomachs without any worries. Some even voiced how appreciative and selfless it was for these players to come, take time out and spend it with their kids, and how it was more than they could ask for.

“Are they going to read to the kids?” asked one mother to another. But before she could get her answer, Hollins, Carroll and Dudley each picked up a copy of “Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving” and sat down in front of her son, along with all the other children, and started reading.

“I know as a kid you can get kind of restless, so I tried to keep them into to it,” said Hollins. “I can only hope that reading to them will make them want to pick up a book, too.”

After the children had dispersed from the reading group, said their final goodbyes and had their last autograph signed, Hollins went on to explain what “giving back” means to him.

“Giving back is giving a part of yourself, and there is no thought of giving to get back,” he said. “You just do it.”.

The Bobcats exuded the very meaning of giving back on Thursday. They wanted to do something that would stick with these kids for the rest of their lives, and they all acknowledging that they felt good about what was accomplished on this night.

“Maybe what we did will inspire them to work harder in school, make them feel good, or maybe we were just an inspiration to them especially with all that goes wrong in the world,” Hollins said. “Just as long as we made a difference.”