43
Classic scores big for Valley kids
Game of Hope
Video
The funds go to organizations that serve chronically and terminally ill children.
YOUNGSTOWN — For the sixth consecutive year, Saturday’s Game of Hope Charity Basketball Classic combined fun and fundraising in a local celebrity athletic competition.
Played at Youngs-town State University’s Beeghly Center and attended by about 750 people, the game was organized to raise money to enable chronically and terminally ill Mahoning Valley children to enjoy experiences generally afforded to healthy children.
Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, which represents General Motors assembly workers at Lordstown; and Jeff Pegg, president of the Northeast Ohio Educators’ Association, coached opposing teams that included local celebrities, dignitaries and media personalities. The final score was Team Pegg, 59; Team Graham, 49.
Among the players were U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and John Boccieri of Alliance, D-16th, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, state Sen. Joe Schiavone of Canfield, D-33rd, Mayor Jay Williams and John Landers, a member of the Boardman school board.
“It’s for a worthy cause,” said Boccieri, who has played in the charity basketball game annually since its inception. “I want to be there to help out, especially in these troubling and challenging times.”
But elected officials weren’t the only ones running down the basketball court. The players included Felix Wright, a former Cleveland Browns strong safety who played while Bernie Kosar was the team’s quarterback in the late 1980s; a union leader, a minister, YSU officials, businessmen and media personalities.
“It’s for a great cause,” said Wright, who was playing in the charity basketball game here for the second consecutive year. Wright, who resides in Westlake, is now a financial consultant to sports professionals.
The Rev. David Herron Sr., pastor of Monument of Faith Church of God in Christ in Warren, who was playing in this game for the first time, said he was participating because of his “concern for our community in terms of working and supporting any community cause that’s going to help the community to come together. I think this is a notable project.”
Herron is the father of Daniel “Boom” Herron, an Ohio State Buckeyes tailback, and Dave Herron Jr., a Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, both of whom attended Saturday’s charity basketball game.
Top scorers on each team were Adam Tokash, who scored 21 points for Team Pegg, and Nick Graham, who scored 14 points for Team Graham.
The game’s fundraising goal was $7,500 to $8,000, said Tony Spano, founder and executive director of the Hope Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, sponsor of the game. The game actually raised about $8,000, Spano said. Twelve percent of concession-stand sales at the event went to the foundation.
Over its first five years, the celebrity basketball game, normally played at Beeghly Center on the fourth Saturday in January, raised nearly $40,000.
Beneficiaries of foundation money have included Akron Children’s Hospital of the Mahoning Valley; the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which fulfills vacation and other wishes for chronically or terminally ill children; and Actor Paul Newman’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang Association, which operates overnight camps for chronically or terminally ill children.
Other competitions sponsored by the foundation have been the Softball Game of Hope that is played annually by local celebrities at Eastwood Field in Niles before a Mahoning Valley Scrappers home game; a Bocce Game of Hope played at the MVR Club and tentatively set for Oct. 25, 2010; and a Football Game of Hope that was played by high school football coaches in the Covelli Centre in conjunction with the former Mahoning Valley Thunder arena football team.
The nonprofit foundation, which allocates money to organizations serving chronically and terminally ill children, is governed by a 12-member board of trustees, whose chairwoman is Janet Szenborn, a real-estate specialist in the Mahoning County auditor’s office.
For more information, or to make donations, visit hopemv.org.