May 27, 2009
The Santa Clara men's basketball spent its Mother's Day participating in the 20th annual Courageous Kids Day at Great America. The event featured children from the Santa Clara community, and as far away as Bakersfield and Fresno.
The Courageous Kids Day hosted 550 children, diagnosed with cancer, and their families at California's Great America theme park. The players signed autographs and played with the kids throughout the day. Great America gave each child a gift bag and donated tickets for them to play in the theme park as well.
After the event, members of the Bronco basketball team reflected on their experiences.
"Our day at Great America with the Courageous Kids for Cancer organization gave us a chance to be involved in the community and give back to kids who are fighting diseases", said sophomore guard Michael Santos. "Any way that we are able to bring light and laughter to their day was worth while and we enjoyed our time with all of the families."
"I enjoy doing community service events because it's always nice to get out in the community and meet new people," said sophomore guard Nate Mensah. "The kids get something out of it and we get something out of it. It is fun hanging out with them and getting to act like a kid again. It's something I would like to do more of."
Freshman point guard Kevin Foster also reflected on the event, "I am glad I went. It was a great event for the kids. It made my day. I walked away with a feeling of internal happiness."
Freshman guard Troy Alexander also had a great experience. "I definitely got an appreciation for my own health through this, which is something I took for granted. I went through some rough injuries and surgeries this year but none of this came even close to what these little kids are going through. The event put into perspective how meaningless my own injuries actually were. We took pictures with the kids, signed autographs, and played different games such as a water-balloon toss, and we had a hula hoop contest (Ben Dowdell = Worst Hula-Hooper ever, I think it might have something to do with the toilet water spinning the other way in Australia). It is really important for us to give back to the community and use our gifts and talents to enrich the value of other's lives."
"I thought that it was a great experience! I really enjoyed talking to the kids about what sports they like playing, who their favorite basketball teams and players are", said freshman guard Phillip Bach. "It is very important to me to participate and do community service because there are some people in this world that are less fortunate than us. It really does make you realize how lucky we truly are!
For more information on the event please call 408-879-1032. For more information on the American Cancer Society, visit www.cancer.org.
