Game of curb-ball, gets basketball goal donated to kids
Published 8:23 am Saturday, August 19, 2017
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Orange police officers working with community citizens of Velma Jeter to put together a basketball goal an anonymous donator gifted the kids.
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
By Eric Williams
The Orange Leader
Orange Police Officer G. McLean didn’t realize, that a simple game of basketball could touch so many lives.
McLean states that on August 2, he was doing a follow-up to a previous call he had been on. The individual that he went to make contact with was not home, so as he was exiting the complex he was stopped by a group of kids. The kids asked the officer if he wanted to play a game of basketball.
“Sure why not, show me how to play,” McLean said.
That is when they begun to play a game of basketball that touched the heart of Rose Daugherty.
“I had just finished taking a shower, when I looked out the window and noticed the officer playing with the kids,” Daugherty said. “It touched my heart to see the officer interacting with the kids the way that he was playing with them. So many people always are saying that the cops are bad. Around here in our community of Orange we actually have some good decent cops and I was so happy to see such a good thing going on.”
Daughterty grabbed her cell phone and started shooting pictures and video of the game of curb ball as she says they called it in her days.
The video went viral throughout the City of Orange where it caught the heart of an anonymous lady who felt she had to do something to keep the kids safe and playing basketball.
“They were contacted by this lady who wishes to remain unknown,” Orange Police Lt. G. Keaton said. “The officers action with the kids just touched her.”
She asked Keaton if she purchased a basketball goal from Walmart would the officers pick it up and deliver it to the apartment complex for her.
Keaton said, on the officers end that would not be a problem but they would have to get permission from the apartment complex manager.
Miosiha Scott, complex manager at Velma Jeter said it would not be a problem to set up the goal for the kids.
Keaton and McLean went to Walmart and picked up the basketball goal that was already paid for by the donor.
Both officers along with the help of three individuals at the complex all pitched in and managed to put the goal together for the kids.
“People always see us as bad, when we receive calls from people they usually are having a bad day or it is a emergency of some type,” Keaton said.
“We live here too, this is our community as well as just our job, and a lot of our officers are from Orange,” Keaton said. “We would rather receive this type of call, then a bad one any day. Hopefully the kids in the future will remember what we did for them, and reach out to us when they are in need of help.”
