Hoopin'

Sometime last spring a bunch of the kids in the neighborhood were talking about how they wanted a good hoop to play basketball on. At that time the kids had few options. Some of the kids tried to play at Washington High School, where there were so many kids playing that they would have to wait to get in a game. Some of the kids were too young to join in with the older kids that played there and others weren’t always allowed to go there to play anyway. The only other option was playing on an old, beat up hoop, so bent that it was better to shoot line drives through rather than giving your shot some arc.

The kids wanted a good hoop that would be easily accessible to them. So I began to ask questions about how much a hoop costs, and where they could get that money. The overwhelming majority thought that selling candy bars was going to get them the money to get a hoop. We set up a deal where I would buy the candy bars, and walk with them around the neighborhood to sell them. They would pay me back out of the money they made, and anything above that would go towards buying a hoop. After the kids learned that eating the candy bars wouldn’t help them make money, we started making progress. We sold a lot of candy bars. And we had one very unsuccessful lemonade stand. It took awhile, but eventually we had some money for a hoop. But then it started getting cold. Winter came, and I told the kids to wait until spring and we would get a hoop.

About a month ago I went out and bought the hoop and a few days after that we started putting it together. Despite the adversity of Tim coming by and seeding the backyard and thus watering us as much as the backyard, we got the hoop up.

Now the hoop is being used constantly. Everyday someone will come over and ask me to “take out the court.” It has been used almost every day from after school until dark, and all day on the weekends. The kids love having a good hoop they can play on. They are taking ownership of it too. They are keeping an eye on it and making sure that it is being taken care of, and put away safely at night. This is the hoop that they worked for.