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| Hoops for the holidays |
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| Written by Chris Roberts / Tracy Press / | |
| Saturday, 24 November 2007 | |
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Storm continues tradition of giving.  Tracy Storm players work out under the basket during team practice Saturday morning as they get ready for their annual Toys for Tots tournament. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press.  Tracy Storm coach Kelly Conrardy shouts to get a drill going as her team practices Saturday. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press. But now, when the Poet Christian School eighth-grader opens the goodies in front of her family’s tree, she’s also thinking about some other people: the children living at the McHenry House Family Shelter, and the Christmas presents she and her Storm teammates helped to get for them. “I wonder if they’re opening them on the same day … and I wonder if they liked it or not,” she said Saturday, a week before the AAU 12-and-under girls team will host its annual Toys for Tots fundraising tournament. With the money raised by the two-day, 10-team tournament that attracts teams from Sacramento to Pleasanton to the Hawkins Elementary School gym, the girls of the Storm go on mini shopping sprees for each of the 18 or so kids who’ll spend the holidays at McHenry House. Each member of the Storm receives one child’s letter to Santa, and, armed with the lists, the players hit up Wal-Mart for toys. “We kinda take it for granted — Christmas, you’re going to get gifts,” Grimes said. “They don’t … It makes you appreciate everything you get a lot more.” Coach Kelly Conrardy founded the Storm, the sole girls-only Amateur Athletic Union team in town, in 1998 and started the Toys for Toys tournament the following year. It went from raising funds to buy bicycles distributed by U.S. Marines to the present, more personal format. “It’s good for the girls,” she said. “Most girls here — I won’t say they’re spoiled, but they all have a lot. It’s good for them at Christmas to do a good deed for somebody else. “When they get their list in the child’s writing, it really hits home for them.” All proceeds from the tournament go to pay for a McHenry House child’s holiday. With the gym space donated by the elementary school and all snack bar and tournament proceeds going to the fund, each child gets about $100 in gifts, Conrardy said. Anyone interested in donating further can call Conrardy at 832-2578.
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 24 November 2007 ) |
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Coach Kelly