CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Hornets work to have an impact on their community. And the team works to connect and engage with its youngest fans through the Boys and Girls Club.
Several of those connected with the Hornets are connected to the club as former “Club Kids.”
They spoke with Channel 9’s Hannah Goetz about the Boys and Girls Club, an organization that is close to her own heart.
Hornets coach Kemba Walker grew up going to the Boys and Girls Club in New York. Tony Orr, another “Club Kid,” now works for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
“All of us have one thing in common — and it’s not our basketball skills," Shelly Cayette Weston said. " I grew up going to the Boys and Girls Club in my hometown. And now I sit on the board for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Charlotte Region."
Weston is a trustee for the organization. She also works as the president of business operations for the Charlotte Hornets.
The three told Goetz that the club is meaningful, and supporting it means so much to them.
But the real star of the show was small in size but big in personality.
North Carolina’s Coach Christopher Bess has 385,000 followers on Instagram at just 7 years old.
He spends his time coaching online. But this time, he was helping Goetz ask the big questions as they started off the interview with a game of rock-paper-scissors.
Bess is a club kid too. He attends the Boys and Girls Club in Tarboro. And the Hornets know kids like him are what it is all about.
The team supports the organization in hopes to help encourage today’s youth to become the leaders of tomorrow — and to tell young people that the team believes in them, Walker said.
The Boys and Girls Club of the Charlotte Region serves more than 200 kids at five Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools sites.
Tune in to Channel 9 at 7 p.m. for a special look at the Hornets ahead of the play-in.
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