On July 4th, members of the Metea Valley girls’ basketball and soccer team partnered with Buddy Helpers by surprising kids of first responders like the military, Chicago police, and firefighter families with new bikes. The gesture was a thank you to those first responders working tirelessly to keep everyone safe.
New rides for families of first responders
“We had the opportunity to go with the Buddy Helper’s program to Chicago to provide for a firefighter and police officer’s family. Each of them had one kid, and we were able to give them bikes through the program. It was just like a great opportunity to give back to the community because we know that the kids make a large sacrifice having their parents in that specific job field,” said Metea Valley girls basketball player Shreehitha Duggirala.
“You never know what the reaction was going to be. We were excited to give back to them and give them the bike. So they were just excited to receive them and when we were there, the kids wanted to get on the bikes and ride around. It was nice to see, that what we were doing was making their day and a good, positive experience for them,” said Metea Valley girls basketball player Arianna Hammons.
“It was a bike because it gets people to go outside and gives good like you can have fun but you can get some exercise. It just gives many different things you can do, you can go on a bike ride with your family. I think it’s just like a fun thing you can learn to do when you’re younger,” said Metea Valley girls basketball player Kelly Klish.
Following the footsteps of Lucy Burk
Former Mustang basketball and soccer standout Lucy Burk has been involved in charitable efforts for years as a member of the girl’s soccer team. The team competes annually in the Body Armor series where the Mustangs won the last five championships. While the main goal was winning the tournament, Burk and the Mustangs took time to support children’s hospitals, and military children, along with bringing attention to domestic abuse through donations and awareness campaigns. This summer the basketball team, which includes Lucy’s younger sister Annie, not only helped out with kids camps, but took their first big step off the court surprising kids with new wheels.
“Lucy Burk, she was playing in the basketball program, but she’s also a very, involved playing in the soccer program. They’ve been involved in the Buddy Helpers program for years now so we heard it through her,” said Duggirala.
“It meant a lot, me being a member of the basketball team for four years now, it meant a lot to finally see the basketball team kind of pick up and follow in the girls soccer team footsteps and start getting into volunteer work,” said former Metea Valley basketball and soccer player Lucy Burk.
“Body Armor is creating a new tournament for girls’ basketball. So they wanted us to be the face of it because Metea soccer is the face of their tournament. So we wanted to get involved and they wanted us to become the face of their basketball tournament,” said Metea Valley basketball player Annie Burk.
More Metea Valley teams hopeful to contribute
While the two Mustangs programs continue to give back, they hope more Metea Valley teams continue to get involved with more community events.
“I hope more of Metea can get involved. I know Metea does but I hope it gets acknowledged more,” said Metea Valley basketball player Sydney Quival.
