NY Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz has become famous to puzzle solvers across America, as well as weekend NPR listeners who hear his voice regularly. But Will’s association with MVP Basketball Camp started because of his other passion, ping pong.
Will owns the Westchester Table Tennis Center, a 14,000 square foot facility with 19 tables that MVP has called home to its annual Ping Pong Madness fundraiser since 2011. According to an article in Sports Illustrated, Will has not missed playing ping pong one day since October 3, 2012, when the club he visited during a trip to Croatia closed early before he got there.
Now Will Shortz has graciously chosen MVP Basketball Camp as his charity of choice to benefit from an event sponsored by the Journal News. The puzzle master will play interactive games with the audience for one hour prior to a special showing of the documentary film “Word Play” at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Central Avenue in Yonkers. Advance tickets can be purchased at https://tickets.lohud.com/
MVP Basketball Camp’s fifth annual evening of games, food, and drink will benefit MVP’s Youth Development Scholarship Program. Last year’s event raised almost $20,000, which by itself funded 60 of the 300 scholarships that MVP granted to children whose families couldn’t afford summer camp tuition.
Join us Friday, April 1 for socializing, ping pong, and lots of food and drink. The event takes place at the Westchester Table Tennis Center in Pleasantville, NY. We’ll feature great raffle prizes and silent auction items. If you can’t make it, you can still call us at 914-946-1231 in advance and place your bid on a few select auction items including a signed Kevin Durant Thunder jersey and a signed Kristaps Porzingis 16X20 photo.
There will be plenty of special activities for kids at the event including a magician. Attendees can test their skills in one of two ping pong tournaments (one for ages 14 and under and the other for adults.) Or just find an open table and challenge you someone you know to a friendly game.
Although club owner Will Shortz of NPR and NY Times fame will be out of town, we’ll give away signed copies of his crossword puzzle books. Other raffle items include $100 gift cards for Tommie Copper merchandise, lift tickets to Thunder Ridge for next winter, and plenty of gift certificates for local restaurants. The event will run from 6:30pm until 10pm. In case of snow, the reschedule date will be Sunday of that same weekend with a little earlier start and end time.
If you can’t attend, you can make a tax deductible donation online anytime and help us keep founder Stan Greene’s vision alive. MVP has never turned away a camper due to an inability to pay, although we only accept students who demonstrate effort in the classroom.
Welcome to MVP’s brand new website, which features an all-new online registration system on an encrypted SSL server. Whether you use this function or prefer the traditional pen and paper exercise, you will find that MVP has consolidated several processes into one.
There will no longer be a need for a separate “Health and Release Form.” Just be sure you fill in the required fields on the online form, or give us the information we ask for on the paper form, and we will have all the medical information we need to make sure your camper is safely in the hands of our well-trained staff and highly qualified certified athletic trainer.
Scholarship applicants will also find an all-in-one process without the need for separate forms for enrollment and scholarship request . You can also now use the online system to submit information if you prefer that over our paper form. However, you will still be asked to mail, fax, or email documentation of income and a letter of recommendation separately and you must wait for verbal confirmation that your scholarship has been granted before any weeks can be reserved and any additional non-scholarship weeks can be paid for at our new 25% off price.
MVP Basketball Camp raised enough money this past Sunday at it’s annual Ping Pong Madness fundraiser to cover the tuition of sixty children for the upcoming summer basketball camp. In the process, a lot of fun was had whacking ping pong balls around the Westchester Table Tennis Center in Pleasantville, New York. Attendees of the event tested their skills in a tournament or just challenged a friend, and between games there was plenty of food, drink, and other entertainment for the whole family.
Sponsors
There are too many people to thank in one article, but we should start with our gold level sponsors:
– The Rosenberg family
– The Samberg family
– The Nossel family
– The Gelfman family
– The Scherr family
– David and Fay Paget
Also generous donations of food and wine were received from:
– Whole Foods of White Plains
– Trader Joe’s of Hartsdale
– Captain Lawrence Brewery in Elmsford
– Hilltop Wines in Chappaqua
– La Famiglia Pizza in Katonah
– Martine’s in Scarsdale
– Lulu’s in Scarsdale
– Patisserie Salzburg in Scarsdale
– Scarsdale Pizza Station
Oliver Gibbons of Bronxville won the open division tournament. Aaron DiChristina (right) beat his friend Logan Baumgartner (left) to take home the trophy in the 13 and under age group.
Magician Joe Fields entertained the young kids while the older ones gravitated to the TV to watch the Brooklyn Nets opening round playoff game. Silent auction tables attracted plenty of attention, thanks in large part to the memorabilia items offered up by our friends at Steiner Sports.
MVP also featured its newest camp video, which you can watch now on Vimeo.
MVP Basketball Camp is a 501 c3 Charitable organization with a mission to give as many camp scholarships as possible to children whose parents can’t afford camp tuition. You can make an online donation anytime at mvpbasketballcamp.org/donation
MVP Basketball Camp is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this summer and has received a proclamation from the county recognizing 5,000 scholarships granted since inception. The scholarship program has enabled children to attend the camp regardless of financial means, a dream for founder Stanley D. Greene. The camp is very popular among Westchester County residents, but many may be unaware of MVP’s unusual history.
Stan Greene’s parents could not afford for Stan to attend summer camp when he was growing up, a fact he never forgot when he started MVP. Stan loved basketball and played on Harvard University’s Varsity team. He had a long and successful business career, then in his retirement he worked as a coach at several basketball camps. He noticed these camps were only for families who could afford to pay the tuition. This is what triggered Stan to create MVP Basketball Camp as a non-profit organization. Stan Green explained his selection of the name of the camp. “MVP usually means ‘Most Valuable Player,’ but at our camp it means ‘Most Valued Person.’ Our goal is to treat each camper as a Most Valued Person. Through the game of basketball we help to guide each camper along the passageway of life’s experience. If we can accomplish that goal, we will consider our efforts rewarded.”
MVP Basketball Camp’s fifth annual evening of games, food, and drink will benefit MVP’s Youth Development Scholarship Program. Last year’s event raised almost $20,000, which by itself funded 60 of the 300 scholarships that MVP granted to children whose families couldn’t afford summer camp tuition.
