Hoopsters headline Steamboat fundraiser
Event will raise money for Boys & Girls, Optimist clubs
If you go
What: Harlem Ambassadors tour, a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Steamboat Springs and the Optimist Club
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Steamboat Springs High School
Tickets: $5 for students and $10 in advance for adults; $7 for students and $12 for adults at the door
Steamboat Springs — The Harlem Ambassadors are bringing their basketball hijinks to Steamboat Springs.
The team will participate in a fundraiser Tuesday night for the Boys & Girls Club of Steamboat Springs. The team “offers a unique brand of Harlem-style basketball, featuring high-flying slam dunks, dazzling ball-handling tricks and hilarious comedy routines,” according to a news release.
The Steamboat Springs Optimist Club approached the Boys & Girls Club with the idea to bring in the Ambassadors, Boys & Girls Club Director Heather Martyn said.
“The Optimist Club motto is that they’re friends of the youth, so they came to us and said they wanted to do it in conjunction with us,” she said.
The event is at 6 p.m. at Steamboat Springs High School. Tickets are available in advance at the Boys & Girls Club and All That Jazz for $5 for students and $10 for adults. Prices increase to $7 and $12 at the door. The clubs hope to bring in 1,000 people, Martyn said.
Steve Dunklin, of Cook Chevrolet, put together a team of guys from local basketball leagues to play the Ambassadors, Martyn said. The Ambassadors team often performs at nonprofit fundraisers, according to a news release.
They aim to deliver a positive message for children.
“At our shows, we want the kids to know that they’re part of our team, too,” Ambassadors coach Ladè Majic said in the release. “We invite as many kids as we can to come sit on the bench, have a front row seat during the show, and get involved in all of the fun stuff we do.”
The Boys & Girls Club opened in Steamboat in July and has 690 members, Martyn said. The youth development organization provides programming after school and when children are out of school for youths ages 6 to 18. It sees 90 to 100 children daily, Martyn said.
“We’re bracing ourselves for a really big summer because it’s busy as it is,” she said. “Our location is fabulous and our space is wonderful, so we’re staffing up now for that. It’s going to be good.”
The club is at Eighth and Aspen streets, at the site of the former junior high school. Proceeds from the Harlem Ambassadors event will go to ramp up the space for middle-schoolers, Martyn said. The Ambassadors have performed in Craig, but not in Steamboat, she said.
“It’ll be fun,” Martyn said. “The kids here are excited to go to it because it will be fun, just something totally different that Steamboat never gets.”
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