Friday Fun: Ballin’ for a cause

This morning, I woke up in Houston. But last Friday morning I woke up in N. Salt Lake City, Utah.

My longtime friend Ronnie Price and his wife Jenni decided to start The Ronnie Price Foundation this year as a way to make a difference in the lives of less fortunate children by providing educational and recreational resources, opportunities and mentoring.

Last Friday night the Foundation held its first fund-raising event at Donovan’s Steak House in downtown Salt Lake City, and I was fortunate enough to be in attendance.

For the past two months I had been working closely with Jenni Price on the official Ronnie Price website, so I was very familiar with the Foundation and knew the hard work Jenni had put into the event.

The night brought out businesses from around Utah, such as Simmons & Co. and Fuel Marketing, along with several current and former NBA players, such as Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Krover and Mark Madson.

The event was hosted by the voice of the Utah Jazz, Craig Bolerjack, who did a great job telling the Ronnie Price story and getting attendees to participate in fund-raising activities, like   ‘Raise The Paddle”.

I volunteered to run the computer for the Ronnie Price Foundation PowerPoint presentation, but before we got that started, I spent a lot of time clicking through http://ronnieprice.net , trying to make him dunk on the home page, looking at photos, watching highlight videos, and eating lobster tail.

The media was up in the building as both the Fox and NBC local news channels were at the event to provide coverage.

Overall, the event was a total success and the Foundation was able to raise a good amount of money.   The Foundation will be able to make an immediate impact on children by providing basketball shoes to the Desire Street Academy basketball team in New Orleans, starting and funding an after school program at two elementary schools in the Salt Lake City area as well as purchasing basketball balls for other under funded youth sports programs in the area.

To round out the weekend I was able to do a few other fun things on Saturday including…

• Ate at really good bacon and cheese Burger at Squatters in downtown SLC
• Drove around the city and looked at ridiculous houses
• We went to see the Utah Jazz play the Sacramento Kings where I saw Carlos Boozer’s white Phantom and indulged in free ham and cheese sandwiches.
• Late light shrimp and Calamari at a spot I cant remember
• Freestyled with CJ Miles at the club

Check out more photos from the Weekend

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