Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Charity event is a slam dunk

Faculty, students, alunmi take to court

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas Many people might not be aware that Los Lunas High and other area schools have homeless students. That's why last Thursday's charity basketball event at LLHS wound up being a fundraiser and an awareness night.

With hundreds of dollars in cash or check donations and about 300 cans of food collected for homeless students, the charity event turned out to be a tremendously successful debut. The first-of-its-kind event featured three short basketball games involving students, faculty and alumni, and allowed the community to participate in both giving and in a fun athletic event.

"We'd never done this before, so we didn't really know what to expect," said Pam Davis, the LLHS student activities director. "But I'm really happy with the turnout. The final tally of money raised was $694.15, and (now we have) over 1,000 items homeless students and family can use such as flashlights and toiletries."

The admission charge was either two cans of food or $2, and dozens of students and adults came out to cheer and/or participate. Some well-known alumni, many of whom played basketball at LLHS, were on hand, and there were plenty of laughter and on-court hijinks to keep the two-hour event light.

Davis played on the faculty basketball team, though her defensive efforts were more like rugby tackling. As to why she nearly dragged a stocky opponent to the floor, she said only, "I was just trying to keep him from falling."

The three games used different gender and student-adult combinations in each quarter. A team called the Freshman-Senior team scored a late basket to beat the Sophomore-Junior squad in the opener, 27-26.

The faculty defeated the alumni, then beat the students 23-9 in the finale. In the final minutes of the last game, a group of about six students stormed the court, so faculty players Joseph Saiz and Eliseo Aguirre and others had to battle through a Harlem Globetrotters type of finish.

Aguirre even earned a "technical foul" from referee George Waquie minutes before that, and the alumni's Steve Chavez bricked the ensuing free throw while being heckled by Saiz and John Gabaldon.

Other alumni who played included Amy Wortman Griego, Victoria Peña, Avilio Chavez, Greg Wortman, and 1955 LLHS graduate Nick Martinez. The faculty players included Sharon Cordova, Rick Cole and many others.

LLHS senior Brad Lardner handled some of the public address duties. Cole, who said he only has one pair of shorts, took plenty of ribbing from Lardner regarding his out-of-date apparel.

Los Lunas High principal Claudia Krause-Johnson, who joined the cheerleading crew for the event, said similar fundraisers took place at other schools she where she worked.

"It's a great opportunity to unite for a good cause," said Krause-Johnson. "It's a nice reason for us all to be out here having fun."

Other students enjoyed the event, but perhaps few as much as Rafael Acosta. The senior wore a scuba mask during all the time he was on the court, and even blocked a shot by Cole near the end. LLHS athletic coordinator Albert Aragon, after a mock lambasting of Aguirre's basketball performance, gave credit to Davis and others for organizing the event. The JROTC color guard and the Tiger marching band also participated.

And in the event one of the alumni or faculty might have had injury, even to their pride, Krause-Johnson said plans were in place.

"We had a nurse here, just in case," she said, smiling.

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