DETROIT – After the mass shooting at a Detroit block party earlier this month, Caught Up Mentoring Founder and Director Toson Knight decided to bring back a program that has been dormant for months under a new name, Midnight Basketball.
“We changed the name to Midnight Basketball, so people know that you can come here, you can be here all night if you want to, just play basketball, stay out of trouble, and we’re going to provide you food,” said Knight.
Last Saturday (July 13) night, about 35 young people showed up, including Freeman Self.
“It was very fun,” said Self. “It brings everybody together. It keeps people out of trouble.”
And that’s precisely the point.
“It is just like welcoming, and everybody is so joyful because everybody’s doing what they love,” 16-year-old Cord’e Theus said. “They’re playing basketball.”
He said there is no drama.
“It might be a little trash-talking because that’s just basketball, but at the end of the day, they will shake hands, kick it, and eat together,” Theus said.
Knight believes this could be a model for other groups in the community to follow.
“I really want to work with different churches to do that,” Knight said. “But this is something we’re going to continue to do, especially throughout the summer, because clearly young people want different outlets, and we have different things here. It’s not just basketball.”