Saturday, June 19, 2010

Company Affinity 4 Hoops of Hope Event Raises $5K!


by Joe Flanagan

13NEWS / WVEC.com

Posted on June 3, 2010 at 5:52 PM

Updated Thursday, Jun 3 at 5:57 PM

NORFOLK -- Hoops of Hope is all about raising money per basketball shot.

Affinity4, a Norfolk company, will score nearly $5,000 from atop Dominion Towers parking garage.

13-year-old Austin Gutwein of Arizona started Hoops of Hope to help orphaned children in Africa who have aids.

Affinity4 employees will donate the basketball hoops to ForKids of Norfolk, an organization that offers transitional housing to the homeless.

"They've helped me get everything I need. I mean, it's one of those things that if I didn't have ForKids, I would have been living in my car," said Ann Biesecker, a ForKids client.

Of course, the group is excited about the partnership.

In May alone, ForKids helped 615 people who would otherwise have been homeless.

"More than half that number are children, about 400 children" said spokeswoman Priscilla Monti. "Nobody wants to see that and nobody wants to let that happen."

Nearly $2 million has been raised nationally through Hoops of Hope.

NBC Philadelphia All Stars Coverage

Hoops of Hope All Stars is coming on July 31st at the King of Prussia Mall. Sign up at Hoops of Hope All Stars. Thanks to NBC for the following interview.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.