LOS ANGELES — Last summer, Allen Crabbe's financial contribution helped rescue the Frederick K.C. Price III Christian Schools, and Wednesday night the school's basketball court will be named in his honor at a ceremony at the Los Angeles school. The small school of approximately 175 students, a neighborhood beacon with 100 percent graduation and college acceptance rates, was in danger of closing until Crabbe's six-figure donation.
Crabbe's interest in securing the future of his alma mater is personal. His aunt founded the school, which is located on the campus of the Crenshaw Christian Center, a congregation founded by his grandfather. The school is named for his uncle, who died as a child.
"I simply was doing it because it was my family’s school," said Crabbe. "Like I said they put a lot of hard work and dedication into building that school, and it’s been up for 20-plus years, I’ve had uncles, cousins, little cousins that still go there, my nephew still goes to school there. So just me being blessed financially and being in the position I’m in, you don’t want to see something that my family put a lot of hard work and dedication in when I have the financial means to help it stay open. So really, for me it was a family decision. Family looks after family. And like I said I come from a background where family is priority in my life. Family comes before anything. So I was just doing it simply out of that."
Crabbe attended the school himself from pre-K through high school graduation and counts his childhood classmates as friends today. There was a time when he wouldn't have minded going to a different school, maybe a bigger public school where he wouldn't have the unique spotlight of being the family of the school's founders and leaders.
"I think it was great for me," said Crabbe. "Obviously I was a rebel at first, not really trying to be at my family's school my whole entire life, but I feel like it paved the way for me. Grounded foundation, it was good."
As a senior at Price, he was named California's Mr. Basketball and the state's Gatorade Player of the Year before going on to college in-state at Cal-Berkeley. The school previously retired his No. 23 jersey when he made it to the NBA.
"For my grandfather to create his legacy and everybody knows him as the pastor in the church, it’s kind of dope for me to create my own legacy within the family," said Crabbe. "Not in the pastoral route, but with basketball. I kind of set the tone for others growing up to realize that when you make it to the NBA and all that money that you can make, it’s good to give back. I think it’s a really humbling experience. Now, that it’s closer to the ceremony getting here, I’m actually more excited. At first, it was like, ‘All right, that’s cool. They’re naming it after me.’ But now with all the work they’re putting into it and all the things that are going to happen during the ceremony, I think it’s really an exciting time for me."
Crabbe's contribution turned out to be just the first step. The attention that came with it generated more support, and Crabbe continues to keep a focus on further fund-raising.
"My donation, once people caught wave of it, started getting other people sending donations in," said Crabbe. "I think it was just a stepping stone of something great. Obviously we're putting things in, I'm still thinking of other ideas and things I can do to raise money for the school. It's a work in progress still, but I'm going to do whatever it takes for it to stay open. My family is doing the same thing, looking for other donations outside of just me. But there's other people who stepped up because of what I did.
"Other people have been donating money to the school, so I think it's been cool. I was just doing it, something that I thought was small, helping out my family. Other people were like, oh wow, what he did was great, so I want to join in too. I think it's headed in the right direction right now."