Sleigh bells ring, and the women’s basketball team is listening. Clad in Santa hats and Nikes, the girls put their skills to the test for a good cause.
The Shooting Santas Foundation was created in 1998 to raise money to help needy families provide their children with a Christmas. Each girl shoots fifty baskets and raises money, in either a flat donation or a percentage-based donation, from sponsors. After the money is raised, the team buys and personally delivers presents for a family’s children, all without the children knowing. Anything the family needs for the holiday, the team will help provide, whether that be wrapping paper and tape or a turkey dinner.
In addition, the team provides each family with a camera to take pictures on Christmas morning. The team develops a copy for themselves and a copy for the family.
The event loomed over a large part of the season. The foul shots were taken at a special practice on December 8. The team will do their gift shopping on December 15, and will deliver the presents to the parents on December 19.
Head varsity coach Mike Blizzard informed his team that during the beginning of the season, they would need to raise at least $416 a person to reach the program goal of $10,000. While most of the girls were nowhere near optimistic about the prospects of reaching that goal, Blizzard wouldn’t give up.
Blizzard thinks that in the eyes of these young children, the most important part of Christmas is the “commercial” aspect.
Blizzard knew how to convince his players that they were doing more than merely giving a few dollars to a lower class family from the area. They were moved by Blizzard’s story about a family with six children that lived in a three bedroom apartment with the singular wish of a box of clementines.
“We’re all in our own worlds, with coaches that want to win and players that are only into themselves. When they tell you the stories, you see those people you’re sheltered from and you see the families that are stressing over this holiday,” said sophomore Maria Edwards. Edwards was so moved by the accounts that she raised over $800 herself.
Blizzard has been involved in the foundation for ten years and was especially excited to be its center at JC this year. Blizzard worked with Aberdeen High School last year and helped them to raise over $5000 even though he said that “some of the team’s families could have been on the needy list.”
This year, Aberdeen, Harford Tech, Perryville, and Northeast are also participating.
The team is most excited to go out shopping for the children’s presents. Blizzard said that this is his favorite part of the process because it truly brings out the spirit of the holiday in the girls.
There is an additional competition going on between the varsity and JV teams. If JV raises more money than varsity, the varsity team has to carry JV’s bags and address them by the title of “ma’am” for the rest of the season.
When the caravan of vehicles pulls into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart and as shopping cart sleighs of toys and gifts are unloaded into their trunks, Blizzard believes that the true spirit of Christmas will be shining through.
“I want the kids to think, ‘How did Mom and Dad do all this?’” Blizzard said. He looks to inspire the team to reach out and touch the lives of someone that they generally wouldn’t interact with. Through the Shooting Santas Foundation, Blizzard believes that he is “creating people to help in the community.” Blizzard thinks that by having the girls directly involved in community service, they will be more inclined to help people later on in life.
“We could donate money, but I hope that this inspires them [even] at [age] thirty to help,” Blizzard said.
Edwards expressed how even though she and the team didn’t at first realize just how big this event was, it has become a driving force for their season. By coming together with their sometimes opponents to aid people who are struggling, Edwards thinks that everyone’s spirits will be lifted.
“It’s so cool. We get to help others, lift spirits, and it’s in one day,” Edwards said.
Allison Siegel can be reached for comment at [email protected].