Some 400 kids packed the YMCA Rec Center gym a couple of weeks ago for a basketball camp that has become a summer tradition here in the North Country. The one thing that makes this camp so special is that the kids get to attend it for free.
The Adirondack Coast Basketball Camp’s founder, Tom Lacey, gets area businesses, like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Stewart’s Shops, and area groups like the Kiwanis & County Youth Bureau to donate thousands of dollars to help cover the cost of camp for local kids and their families. Not only that, but the kids also get a new basketball, and even a new pair of sneakers.
Tom Lacey says he puts on the free camp because he remembers what it was like growing up poor. The new sneakers he got as a kid were paid for by the parents of one of his high school teammates, a friend from school, who still to this day, donates every year to the summer basketball camp Tom founded. Other teammates from his playing days at St. John’s Academy and SUNY Plattsburgh, as well as players he coached at St John’s and Clinton Community College, donate money, and some volunteer their time to help put on the camp for kids.
The camp is open to boys and girls as young as 3rd graders. Tom Lacey’s lifelong love of the game keeps him giving back year after year, every summer.