Hoops tournament to benefit children, food bank

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

As the Chaminade Silverswords gear up for the opening of next week's 20th annual Maui Invitational Basketball Tournament they sponsor, they're also putting aside time for the kids and the community.

On the eve of the tournament's Monday tip-off, the team will hold a Hoops Clinic from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow for 50 Maui children between ages 6 and 16.

The price of entry: a can or two of food that will be donated to the Maui Food Bank for needy people during the Thanksgiving and holiday season.

"Sometime on that Sunday they'll also practice," said Liz Rogers, who helped organize the hoops clinic and food drive as a project of the student chapter of the Rotary Club at Chaminade, called Rotaract.

"We want to see the kids there have a good time and want to help the community that's in need," Rogers said.

The hoops clinic can accommodate the first 50 youngsters to sign up. Registration begins at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow at Malu Ulu Olele Park on the Front Street courts in Lahaina.

Debra Johnson, executive director of the Maui Food Bank, is delighted at the assistance from the team and said the food drive will be a big help, as supplies on Maui have dwindled.

"Our stock is really low this time of year because the food collected in the spring drive has mostly been distributed and we need food drives during the holidays."

The Maui Food Bank normally feeds around 6,000 people monthly, but during holiday times when children are home from school and therefore not receiving school meals, the tally goes up to around 8,000 a month.

"When it will really peak is January," Johnson said. "That's when the kids are home and when you think about it, most of the bills come due. And that's when our usage goes sky high."

The youngsters involved in the hoops clinic will receive two Game One tickets to the 9 a.m. Monday ESPN-televised game between the Silverswords and Villanova. Wilson has donated 20 basketballs to be given out to children at the clinic. Other giveaways will include tournament logo T-shirts, sports drinks and squeeze bottles.

The three-day tournament that leads into Thanksgiving includes 12 games and is generally sold out.

This is the first year that the University of Hawai'i-Manoa basketball team will participate.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.