SOMA Basketball Boosters—our nonprofit arm dedicated to building a better community through basketball—is proud to announce its first-ever equipment donation to a public elementary school. On Wednesday, May 21st, the Boosters delivered brand new basketball equipment to the Clinton Elementary School PE program in Maplewood.
Thanks to the leadership of Taylor Valentine, founder of SOMA Hoops and a board member of SOMA Basketball Boosters, and Clinton Elementary’s Arie Sladowsky, we learned of the school’s need for new basketballs, cones, and rebounders. And thanks to the generous donations of families, and sponsorships from local businesses, over the past nine months, we were able to make it happen.
A crew of SOMA Basketball reps were on site to show their support, including board members Michael Dorfman, Delia O’Donnell and Erica Dagley Galea (and founder of AskMeAboutGirlsBasketball.com), CHS Varsity Girls Basketball Coach (and Clinton School alum!) Aaron Breitman, and Clinton student parents Elissa Kozlov and Harvey Wolski . The students’ excitement was palpable as they received their new equipment—they started shooting hoops right away!
We hope this is just the beginning of SOMA Basketball Booster’s collaboration with the South Orange Maplewood School District as we continue on our mission to support local student-athletes of all ages and increase access to basketball for all members of our community.