DU Men’s Basketball Team 给s 回来 to Community

With the arrival at DU of men’s basketball coach Rodney Billups comes a renewed emphasis on giving back to the Denver community.

“Being from the city of Denver, it’s really important that I get out into the community 和 help do as much as I can,比卢普斯说. “And it’s only right that I bring the guys with me.”

Before the start of the season, the team spent an afternoon volunteering at the 丹佛救援任务’s Lawrence Street Community Center. They helped prepare dinner for the 400–500 people expected in the dining room that evening.

“It’s huge for us to have groups from the community, especially a group like the DU basketball team,alexa Gagner说, director of public relations for the 丹佛救援任务. “Just having them give their time back 和 showing people in the community 和 our guests that they care is huge.”

自去年11月开业以来, the Lawrence Street Community Center has served men, women 和 children experiencing poverty 和 homelessness in the Denver metro area. On average, 1,300 meals are served daily.

“There’s such a huge problem around the country with homelessness, 和 this is just our way of giving back 和 saying, ‘we recognize the problem 和 how can we help,’”比卢普斯说.

1月. 25, 2016, the 丹佛救援任务 conducted its annual Point-In-Time (PIT) survey to provide a snapshot of the homeless population. It determined there were 5,467 homeless men, women 和 children in the seven-county metro area. 令人不安的53.4 percent of that population had been homeless for one year or more.

“This is a really good opportunity to give back to the community 和 realize how fortunate we are that we get to go to a school like DU,” says sophomore guard Thomas Neff. “We are just trying to give them a good meal tonight 和 help them out a little bit.”

高级警卫乔赛亚·邓恩, this is the first time he has had the opportunity to volunteer with a team.

“We are really trying to show that we are committed to this community, 和 we really want to give back as much as it’s given to us,邓恩说. “I think it speaks a lot to the character of our coaches that they are setting up these events for us.”