By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Sun Devils men's basketball team provided a thrill for 7,772 fans when it upset No. 23 USC on Friday at Wells Fargo Arena. The excitement ran far deeper for a small group in attendance.
Twelve underprivileged children being served by one of A New Leaf's shelters attended the game with tickets provided by the men's basketball program. At the game, the children, also received Sun Devil T-shirts and vouchers for hot dogs, popcorn and soda.
"None of them had ever gone to a basketball game; it was en entirely new experience for them," said Joe Dulin, New Leaf's Chief Philanthropy Officer. "It was very exciting and of course they got special attention. They're not used to that so afterward, all of them were wanting do it some more."
Arizona State University has a longstanding relationship with New Leaf that has featured numerous community projects including one over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday where student-athletes, members of the athletic department and others provided maintenance, painting and cleanup services at New Leaf's Mesa facility.
Sun Devil Athletics reached out to New Leaf about two weeks week ago about attending the basketball team so the kids, along with chaperones, set foot on ASU's campus for the first time in their lives.
"It's important they start thinking there is something after grade school and high school -- that college is a real option and not a scary unknown," Sun Devils associate athletic director Bill Kennedy said. "Given the backgrounds that they come from, education is an important tool for them to know what opportunities they have.
"It’s about helping our community, particularly young individuals that can go to college and, through education, provide a better life for themselves."
According to its website, last year, A New Leaf served 21,140 individuals with resources, including homeless and domestic violence shelters with services, affordable housing solutions, behavioral health, foster care, counseling, financial literacy coaching and basic needs.
The 45-year-old organization also has men's and women's shelters, two domestic violence shelters and a family shelter. It provides 200,000 meals, 150,000 nights of shelter and 12,000 counseling sessions annually.
"We love the support they provide and all of the interactions we get at ASU," Dulin said. "It's pretty eye-opening for some of these kids to get on campus and talk to students.
"The athletes and also the young women involved with sororities that have been supportive, they're so good about talking to the kids about their own experiences, what it has meant to them to be at ASU and what they had to do to get there.
To have that conversation coming from a young person between 18 and 22 means a lot more to these kids because they can relate to them. Suddenly, college becomes a real possibility in their heads and that's what we're really hoping."