NBA and Nike Recycle Shoes, Donate New Gyms to Clean Up of District Boys and Girls Clubs

Rodents, dirty bathrooms with missing doors on the stalls, a broken drinking fountain and a leaky roof over the gym floor used to be some of the problems that plagued the Metropolitan Police Boys & Girls Club #10, according to staff. Now the club is sparkling clean with a new gym floor and a repaired roof, spotless bathrooms, a functional drinking fountain and no traces of rats.

"Environment means everything in the world," said Officer Cosby Washington, club supervisor. He added that the new club will help build a sense of pride in the members of Club #10.

The club at 2500 14th St. N.W. had a new gym dedicated last Wednesday by the NBA and Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. The program takes over two million pairs of athletic shoes annually to make high performance basketball courts, running tracks, gym floors and playgrounds.

Playing basketball on recycled sneakers doesn't bother Danielle Richardson, 12, at all. She is just glad that she has a nice, new gym to play basketball at her club. Richardson's new basketball court was made from approximately 3,000 pairs of recycled sneakers.

"The gym was all right the first time," Richardson said. "It is nicer now though." She said her club has the nicest gym in the city now.

The smell of turpentine from the new floor twinged in the noses of Boys & Girls Club members from across the city and representatives from Nike and the WNBA as they sat in the bright gym during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"The new gym is nice, but you got to see ours," said Kendra Millard, 12, of Southeast. Millard is a member of Club #11 on Milwaukee Place, Southeast. Her club also received a new gym, and renovations were done to the rest of the club thanks to Nike and the NBA.

"They re-did the whole thing," said Millard, who's most excited about the new locker room for the girls.

Before changes were made, Millard said, the club was "trashy" and there were drawings on the walls.

"It's not going to be the same," Millard said.

Millard's mother, Donna Richards, 36, said that it was about time for the change. She went to the same club when she was a young girl, also.

Ernestine Jackson, of Northeast, is a grandmother of a member who plays for Club #14.

"I'm glad they re-did it," Jackson said. "We used to play them, and it was a tight squeeze."

The dedication coincided with National Girls & Women in Sports Day. So after the ceremony, 100 kids participated in a clinic hosted by Nike on the new court. The clinic was run by Washington Mystic Chamique Holdsclaw and Houston Comet Tina Thompson to encourage them to live an active life.

The children began with stretching. Then the rest of the afternoon they jumped rope, did tae bo, shot and passed a basketball. At the end of the day, the children made a pledge to stay healthy and in shape.

Holdsclaw said working within her community was truly a blessing. "It feels great to give back to place that is kind of like a home to my heart," she said. "A lot of kids that I see at the games who support me wearing their jerseys get to come out here and participate in this clinic and play on this nice court."


Additional reporting done by Michael T. Lyle Jr.
E-mail Kelli at kdesters@howard.edu.