For six years, Carie McCay has headed her PBA 249 Burlington County Corrections Officers group’s efforts in staging an annual spring basketball game against Legacy’s Mary A. Dobbins School students and group home youth, while also providing a barbecue, t-shirts and personal care items. But after viewing the condition of the aging outdoor basketball court at Dobbins on Legacy’s Children’s Home Campus last spring, McCay and her ministry Carie Cares decided to take her philanthropy to the next level.
“We needed to go back and get brooms to sweep the court as there were pools of water,” McCay said. “There were also large clumps of grass that had grown through all the cracks on the court and we also noticed a gully (a deep trench that was full of water) that an officer actually fell in and had to go home and change his clothes.”
McCay approached Legacy with the idea of beginning a fundraising project in order to resurface and repaint the basketball court within a year.
“Carie Cares has a fantastic following and although I had never taken on a project this large before, I knew that we would figure out a way,” she said.
McCay got American Asphalt involved in performing the work on the court and the company also agreed to donate $8,000 of its own money toward the $18,000 project. Carie’s ministry donated $3,000 and held a Facebook fundraiser that collected another $2,500. A January fundraiser at Southampton’s Red Lion Inn earned $1,500 and a number of small businesses made donations as well to make up the difference.
Work on the court was completed in the spring and ahead of McCay’s original schedule. COVID-19 restrictions have prevented the court from being used up until this point.
McCay’s motivation for completing the basketball court project came from her past history as a therapeutic foster home provider (in which most of her children came from Legacy’s Children’s Home Campus) and in memory of her son, Justice, who lost his battle with addiction a number of years ago.
“My son was literally “brothers” with multiple residents during his childhood when we took in therapeutic foster children,” Carie said. “When (PBA 249 representative) Terrence Benson and I were talking, we were trying to come up with something “catchy” to name the court that represented both of our involvements over the years.
“When we realized that “JUSTICE’S COURT” was a great play on words – since the PBA 249 represents the local county jail, and my son Justice had been at the court on multiple occasions with these foster children – it was a great way to honor the missions of both PBA 249 and Carie Cares.”
McCay’s goals for the basketball court are that it will serve the residents of the Children’s Home Campus for years to come by “providing therapeutic enjoyment and ensuring a good outdoor environment for kids to run off stress and learn how to work as a team and cohesive unit.”
“I recently attended the wedding of an adult foster son who is in his late 30s and had come from the Children’s Home Campus,” she added. “He is now successful and married with a blended family. I want people to know that the individuals on this campus can be successful, motivated and wonderful additions to our community and I want to continue to serve youth like them with my ministry.”
