Cleveland Cavaliers
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Max Strus uses basketball camp for good: ‘There’s no better way to give back than to help the community’
Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/cavs-n...ation-basketball-camp-cleveland-cavaliers-nba
INDEPENDENCE — Cleveland Cavaliers forward Max Strus said hosting basketball camps like the one the Max Strus Family Foundation held this past Saturday at Cleveland Clinic Courts is among the “best” days of the summer. It was easy to see why. As happy as the children attending the camp were to meet and play basketball with an NBA player, Strus seemed to be the one most excited to be there.
“Just seeing the smile on their face, just being around them, and just the impact that we’re having,” Strus said when asked about what he enjoys most about this day. “This is for the kids, for the community, to come here and play basketball, be around, and have something to do.”
Strus knows how much fun an event like this can be when you’re a child. His mom worked at a YMCA, so he attended his fair share of basketball camps himself, but none were hosted by a player from his local NBA team.
“I think back to if I was a kid and if I had the opportunity to do this, I would have been there in a heartbeat,” Strus said. “So I’m hoping that people around the area can see that and feel that.”
Strus had help from his biological and basketball family to put on the camp. Many of his family members from the Chicago area drove over to help run the event, and a few from the Cavs organization were there as well. Larry Nance Jr. made the drive up from Akron to participate while head coach Kenny Atkinson and some of his staff put the campers through drills.
“Being able to have them (his family and people in the organization) is a pretty unique experience for these kids to be around people like that,” Strus said. “So, I thank them so much for being here. They truly are part of my family.”
As much fun as this and the Bowl the Land event he had earlier this year were, the ultimate goal is to give back to the community.
“We started this foundation back in January…since then, we’ve been able to donate over $100,000 already,” Strus said. “So it’s been pretty special and pretty unique what we’ve been able to do.”
In May, The Max Strus Family Foundation announced partnerships with four organizations that the money they raised would go to: LifeAct (they work to prevent suicide in youths), Project NICU (who supports families in the NICU going through medical crisis), Empower Sports (an organization that uses the community created in sports to change lives), and A Special Wish Foundation – Northeast Ohio Chapter (who grant wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses). Giving to these groups was just the start.
“The goal is to keep raising more and keep giving more,” Strus said. “That’s what we’re all about. Anything that we can do, anything that we can be as a way of help anywhere in the Cleveland area, in the Chicagoland area, that’s my goal. The people here in Cleveland have been so accepting and so loving, and they just really show group support for our team. And there’s no better way to give back than to help the community.”
The real satisfaction from events like this comes from the lives that can be changed through the money that Strus’s foundation has raised.
“At the end of the day, we’re raising money and trying to do bigger things to help the Greater Cleveland area and the communities and local organizations that we can support and try to make everybody better and just to create a community for all,” Strus said.
Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/cavs-n...ation-basketball-camp-cleveland-cavaliers-nba
