Community Matters Apr 2008

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C O M M U N I T Y

MATTERS T H E W I N S T O N - S A L E M F O U N D AT I O N

Community Newsletter | Apr il 2008

Chris Paul’s Winston-Salem Weekend and how James Naismith helped create social capital ALTHOUGH WE LIVE IN THE EPICENTER of college basketball, many of us know very little of the sport’s creator, Dr. James Naismith. Dr. Naismith, a native of Ontario, Canada, was a highly-educated man with degrees in philosophy, religion, physical education, and medicine. What led him to create the game of basketball? As a physical education instructor in Massachusetts, he desperately needed to create an indoor sport (due to the brutal New England winters) for a very energetic group of students. And yes, the original hoops he used were peach baskets. Dr. Naismith was later ordained as a Presbyterian minister, and subsequently earned his doctorate in Divinity. He died in 1939, after having proudly seen basketball become an Olympic sport in the 1936 Berlin games.

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Fast forward 68 years: It’s the weekend of September 14-16, 2007, and the city of Winston-Salem, NC, is alive with the sight of NBA stars and other celebrities on hand for the 2nd Annual “Chris Paul’s Winston-Salem Weekend.” The weekend tips off with a dedication ceremony of a Habitat for Humanity house sponsored by the CP3 Foundation. Following the ceremony, a community-wide Day of Service gets underway, which consists of four community service projects being held concurrently throughout Forsyth County. Outside of Wake Forest’s BB&T Field, youth and adults are distributing boxes of food and interacting with appreciative families through the Feed the Children organization. Students from several local high schools and other adult

volunteers from all parts of town have gathered together to remove trash and graffiti as part of a “Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful” community cleanup. At the Lewisville library, youth are assisting teachers with a youth literacy program. And across town at a very muddy Habitat for Humanity construction site, volunteers are working through the persistent rain to help build a Habitat for Humanity house. Paul, his parents, Robin and Charles, his brother, CJ, and several of his teammates from the New Orleans Hornets caravan from project to project to lend a hand at each stop and interact with all the volunteers. It is truly a city-wide effort to benefit the entire Winston-Salem community. At Saturday’s Wake Forest homecoming football game, Chris receives a standing ovation from the capacity crowd as he presents a $110,000 check from the CP3 Foundation to the University to endow a scholarship fund in honor of his grandfather, Nathaniel Jones. The weekend continues with a 2K Sports Gala, My Edgar Youth Basketball Clinic, and the signature event of the weekend, the Celebrity Bowling Tournament presented by the Jordan Brand. The weekend wraps up with a nondenominational community church service on Sunday and a CONTINUES ON PAGE 8

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! PLANS ARE UNDERWAY FOR CHRIS PAUL’S 3RD ANNUAL WINSTON-SALEM WEEKEND: SEPTEMBER 18-21, 2008


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