The Lady Eagle basketball team teamed up with EJM Principal to raise money for local families in need. All the money earned at the scrimmages went directly to the community.
“This really was Coach Dev and his coaching staff and team,” French said.“They caught wind of it, and, out of the kindness of their hearts, reached out to be a part of helping out with these families.”
EJ Moss Elementary originally contributed by having a hat day fundraiser with all proceeds going to the families who lost someone this year, but when girls basketball coach Daniel Devisscher heard about the need of Lindale students, he encouraged his team to help.
“Basically I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to show our girls how they can have an impact on our community and how to do that,” Devisscher said. “I know that we have local families that are going through things, and I kind of had an idea to help them out.”
Instead of taking a gate fee at the scrimmages, Devisscher decided collecting an optional donation fee would be better for the goal of helping the families in the community.
“It takes a village, and it’s not always about ‘me,’ it’s about ‘we,’” French said. “We preach that a lot here at EJ Moss. We’re a family and we want to take care of each other, and this was just another great opportunity to pass that along to those high school students as well.”
The team ended up raising more than $1,000 for the families from their two scrimmages. This included money from Lindale citizens and from the other attending schools’ attendees.
“I’m proud of our students and our community,” French said. “The thing I love about Lindale is that this community, in my opinion, is built around our churches and school systems, and that’s one of the reasons I have left and come back and don’t plan on leaving again.”
The team gave the funds to Mr. French when he showed up at a practice, and he told them about the impact they had on those families.
“It was a blessing to be able to give back and to help our girls see that we can use a game for more than just basketball,” Devisscher said. “I think our girls were really moved after seeing the need of these families, so they were just happy to help out and be a part of that. We were so touched by the compassion of our girls towards what they were trying to do.”
