Contest winners could chill with Shaka

Sam Isaacs
News Editor

Coaching the men’s basketball team to victory is not the only thing Shaka Smart is concerned with this November.

All month long, Smart and his wife Maya will team up with FRIENDS Association for Children, a non-profit child assistance organization, to try to raise $100,000.

The CT talked to Maya Smart about their commitment to the Richmond charity.

CT: Tell me about the group you are supporting.

MS: FRIENDS Association for Children has been around since 1871. It used to be used for supporting orphaned black children. Over the past 100-plus years, they have expanded to meet the contemporary needs of children in need.

They have two programs set up, one in Jackson Ward, the other in Gilpin Court. FRIENDS assists with early childhood education programs. They also work with music and art and just giving kids of parents who might be at work or in class a safe place to learn and grow.

CT: When did you and Shaka decided to get involved with the charity?

MS: This January we entered the Coach’s Charity Contest run by ESPN where each coach picked a charity. The fans then voted online for which coach and charity they wanted to see win. The winner of the contest received $100,000 toward their charity of choice.

Ohio State University won and we came in second place. That wasn’t good enough for us, we felt we had some unfinished business to attend to, so we made the decision to get involved and raise the money ourselves.

CT: How are you going about raising that money?

MS: We have made it our goal to raise the $100,000 this November. Using a platform called “bonfirefunds.com,” we are selling shirts online for a cause. The shirts promote the city and the charity.

With each T-shirt purchase, $10 is donated directly to FRIENDS. Additional donations can also be made on top of the T-shirt sale when a user is in the checkout stage of ordering.

I really like the idea of selling shirts for the charity. It is a grass- roots kind of way to get people involved. I want to see thousands of these shirts in circulation.

CT: There is a contest involved as well. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

MS: We wanted to give anyone who is interested a role in helping out. We also decided to give people and incentive, so we came up with an array of different awards for the most shirts sold.

If you are interested in spreading the word, you can register yourself as a fundraiser. Doing that creates a unique link directed toward you that you can send out via social media. All shirts purchased in that link are credited to you.

Groups can also enter as a team. Each member has their own link, and the total number of shirts sold for each person in the team gets added together.

CT: What are the prizes in the contest?

MS: You get awards depending on how many shirts you or your team have sold. 10 shirts gets you a free shirt, 15 gets you a limited edition Shaka Smart tee and the first 30 people that sell 50 shirts get a dinner for two with Shaka and I at The Roosevelt.

There is also a special prize for the team who raises the most money. Shaka will visit that team for an hour, and they do something like a workout training session with him or have him speak to the group. Pretty much anything the winning team wants.