NBA All-Stars and more pitch in for charity - Orlando Sentinel

February 24, 2012|By Kate Santich, Orlando Sentinel

It was a day of charity Friday for the NBA stars, and wherever they went, a crowd of awestruck admirers gathered.

"I cooked with Dwight Howard!" gushed Darnette Smith, 44, a resident of Orlando's Coalition for the Homeless for the past four months. "I told him to put more seasoning in the black-eyed peas! I was so excited!"

With the who's who of the NBA in town for the weekend's All-Star activities, it's not just the tourism industry that is benefitting. The league took the opportunity to organize four days of community-service projects, highlighted by Friday's NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service.

"Every time I have an opportunity to do [community-service work], I do it," James said between chores. "Putting smiles on children's faces… it doesn't get better than that."

At the homeless coalition, nearly 300 volunteers turned out to paint, cook, serve meals, spruce up a playground and set up a TV room and computer lab. Their ranks included NBA and WNBA players, former players, families of players and administrators. Even NBA Commissioner David Stern helped out.

And they were only a fraction of the 1,500 NBA volunteers for the day — 3,000 over the long weekend — taking part in 25 projects. Among their missions: visit sick children in the hospital, teach youth fitness classes, host basketball clinics for young wheelchair players and Special Olympians, and lead a health and fitness clinic for kids with diabetes.

"Everybody has really gotten involved in making this happen — current and former players, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers," said NBA spokesman Todd Jacobson. "Everybody's really passionate about it."

The league launched its global community outreach initiative — the NBA Cares — in October 2005 and has focused on education, youth and family development, and health and wellness. Since then, the effort has raised more than $175 million for charity, provided more than 1.8 million hours of hands-on service and built more than 675 places where families can live, learn or play in 22 countries around the world.

But there's no way to measure perhaps the biggest impact the program has had: spreading good will.

At the homeless coalition, the proximity to athletic legends seemed to infuse the place with optimism.

"They seem like very loving people," offered Dorothy McKnight, 55, a coalition resident. "Just having them here makes you feel better — like you have somebody in your corner."

Though McKnight is partial to former Magic player Nick Anderson, one of the volunteers Friday, Howard was clearly the crowd favorite. Children buzzed around him wherever he went. Adults wanted his photo, his attention, maybe just eye contact for a fleeting moment.

"Dwight himself handed me a green pepper to cut up," boasted 51-year-old Glen Johnson, a coalition resident. "I still can't believe it."

ksantich@tribune.com or 407-420-5503