UWM has joined high school and college teams from across the country that have responded to a plea for help for Houston residents affected by Hurricane Harvey.
The Monday after the hurricane hit, UWM’s women’s basketball team staff saw a tweet from Coach Kelvin Sampson, head coach of the University of Houston basketball team. Supporters had asked what they could do to help, so Sampson sent a tweet asking men’s and women’s teams from all levels and all sports to send 20 of their school’s T-shirts and shoes to help provide basic clean clothes for people who had lost everything or were living in shelters.
“We thought it would be a great way to contribute to the hurricane relief efforts while coming together with the rest of the basketball community,” said Kira Carter, assistant coach of UWM’s women’s team.
#HoustonStrong #ForTheCity #GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/aAlkkcNqnE
— Coach Kelvin Sampson (@CoachSampsonUH) August 28, 2017
The UWM staff gathered T-shirts and sweats, with some help from the ticket sales department, and shipped a package off to the University of Houston.
“It has been cool to see how many different teams from all levels and even different sports have contributed to the cause,” said Carter. “Donating a box of shirts is a small act, but when you have 900 different groups contributing to the same cause, it can help a lot.”
As of Monday, Sampson had received more than 1,300 commitments for donations from the Twitter feed alone. Volunteer students, staff and athletes at the University of Houston are sorting and sharing the items.
The response has been so overwhelming that Sampson posted an update saying the university staff had reached its capacity to effectively distribute the donations. He requested that future contributions be directed to the Red Cross or the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation.
