It will be a special night tomorrow at the JFK in Manitowoc.
The Manitowoc Lincoln and Neenah girls’ basketball teams will compete to beat each other on the court tomorrow (December 9th) night, but they will also team together that night at JFK to support Grow It Forward in Manitowoc.
They’re a local anti-hunger organization founded in 2014 by Amber Daugs, and their mission is to provide people in need with dignified access to good, healthy food to build a healthier future.
Ships Head Coach Riley Garbe tells seehafernews.com how this collaborative effort came to be.
“We have a wonderful booster club of great parent volunteers that I meet with monthly, and this is one of the things that we started a few years ago to collaborate on,” she said. “We team up with a visiting team to host a community night to collect donations to benefit a local organization. This year, we chose Grow It Forward.”
They’ll be collecting monetary donations as well as donations from a wish list that includes, but is not limited to gas and grocery store gift cards, cereal, soup, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, low-sodium vegetables, baking supplies, canned fruits in juice, and sidewalk salt.
Senior guard Taylor Peterson says life is much bigger than basketball.
“We’re not just in this program to play basketball, but we’re all in as a community to work together to make our community better,” she explained. “We feel blessed to use this opportunity to make our mission more publicly known.“
Senior guard Sarah Bolchen hopes they’ll inspire others to do the same.
“I think by doing this we can help inspire other sports teams to get involved in the community,” she said. “Manitowoc is a great community, and I think it’s our job to bring everyone together and provide help to those who need it.”
Collection stations will be set up near the entrance of the fieldhouse prior to the junior varsity game at 5:45 p.m.
The varsity game tips off at 7:00 p.m., and for more information, visit ManitowocGBB.com and Grow-It-Forward.org.
