Jazzy is calling for donations made to the game

The members in the Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Project  are learning how to fund raise by organizing and hosting a basketball tournament. This community event will raise money to support programs at the Broome County Urban League in Binghamton and OASIS Afterschool Program in Endicott. This will help the children in these programs to continue to have activities to do rather than cause problems

The Teen Leaders went through many hours of collaboration and planning before they could finalize the details of the event. The tournament was held August 14^th starting at 2pm at Columbus Park. The event consisted of 32 teams at $5 per person playing on four courts. There were two 16-team brackets for a scholastic division and an open division. Winners received team trophies for the three top finishes. The 3-on-3 format ensured that everyone had a good chance of winning.

The leaders were able to talk to Damien Cromwell who works recording/video studio where he will help make the video about the event. Jen Lesco helped with getting the t-shirts made for the participants in the games.

From this fundraiser the CITY Teen Leaders learned how to share ideas and divide up work evenly between all the members to get everything done. They learned to call and write letters of donations to places such Sam’s Club, Wegman’s, and Wal-Mart. One of the CITY Teen Leaders, Miguel Southee, designed the basketball t-shirt that every participant received for free.  Using the program Microsoft Word the leaders spent many hours in front of the computer preparing the rules and regulations for the tournament and writing letters to sponsors and donators.

If something were to go wrong or something did not work out as planned, then back to the drawing board and more work had to be done.  Members learned to work together to put this event together to help other youth like them.