Oglethorpe Men’s Basketball Team Lends Hand to Brookhaven Boy’s and Girl’s Club

Oglethorpe Men’s Basketball Team Lends Hand to Brookhaven Boy’s and Girl’s Club

(Story taken from the Oglethorpe University website)

ATLANTA, Ga.
- For the past seven years the Oglethorpe men’s basketball team has been volunteering at the Brookhaven Boy’s and Girls Club helping kids with everything from their homework to their jump shots. Oglethorpe Head Coach Philip Ponder began taking his Petrels to the Club in his first season at the helm and ever since the team has enjoyed many afternoons building relationships, working on projects and developing friendships with the youths at the Club, located just two miles from the Oglethorpe campus.

While the volunteer work at the Brookhaven Boy’s and Girl’s Club began in 2003 as a requirement for Ponders’ players, it quickly became time the student-athlete’s looked forward to prior to each hoops season. For five consecutive weeks throughout the fall every member of the Stormy Petrels basketball team spends two hours a week at the Club. Typically, an afternoon includes working with the kids on their homework before attacking a special arts and crafts project that Bobby Dunn, the Brookhaven Boy’s and Girl’s Club Director, has conceived. Almost always the afternoons end with a spirited game of kickball, dodge ball, flag football or basketball.

"I'm proud of the work our players have committed to the Club as it has been a great team building experience for us over the years,” said Ponder. “Our players start helping out over there as freshmen and by the time they’re seniors they’ve developed lasting relationships that extends beyond the game of basketball."

In addition to their weekly mentoring sessions the men’s basketball team joined their friends at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club this past Sunday to help clear brush, shovel dirt, mulch and replace bleachers in a massive renovation project for the Brookhaven Club location.