Donation Helps Local Girls Attain Their Hoop Dreams

A group of young girls who are learning the fine art of the layup recently got a big assist from a regional charity.

The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey  has donated $10,000 to Playworks of Greater Newark, the local branch of an Oakland, Calif.-based charity that serves 120,000 children in 23 cities every school day.

The aim of the charity is to increase opportunities for “safe, healthy play for urban youth,” said Lucie Carlino, a development associate at Playworks, which has been operating in Newark for three years.

The chance to run, jump and cut loose is not just fun but a vital component of children’s health. For many urban youth, however, school recess times also present opportunities for bullies, Carlino said.

In Newark, Playworks “helps mitigate that” through supervised recreation, she said. The emphasis of the girls basketball program is not to crank out winning teams per se but to give girls the chance to learn the fundamentals of a game that, in inner cities, is often perceived as being just for boys, Carlino added.

“We don’t keep score, we just track progress week after week,” said Carlino, adding that the girls squad has grown in popularity.


“This year we had our biggest turnout,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have student support and parent support.”

More than 100 girls from Newark and surrounding towns are taking part in the 2012 All Girls Basketball League, according to the JWF. Many of those girls, as well as their beaming parents, took part in a “Kick Off Extravaganza” at a gym in Harrison in December, the JWF said.


“With their proud parents looking on, you could feel the adrenaline rush as the self-esteem of these young girls soared along with the basketball as it hurtled towards the basket. They joined together as teammates, forging new friendships and realizing that no matter what challenges they faced on a daily basis, here in the gym ‘they could do it’ — they could achieve goals they never thought possible,” the JWF added.