OKLAHOMA CITY –<\/p>\n
It\u2019s summer, and kids need something to do. It\u2019s time to bring out the basketballs and lace up the shoes for some midnight basketball.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s year 28 of SOY(Saving Our Youth Summer) basketball, located at the corner of NE 27th and Kelley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide a safe environment for our youth in the community, to come out, play basketball,\u201d said Priscilla Meadows-Norwood, organizer of SOY.<\/p>\n
For kids like Devin, who has been coming to play basketball since the first grade, this program means everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t be on the streets or nothing like that, but my mamma raised some good hoopin boys, athletes, and we don\u2019t be on the streets or none of that, it\u2019s just that we have anything to do during the summer beside swimming or going out, and we\u2019ll come out here every time,\u201d said SOY participant Devin Godwin.<\/p>\n
With music, free-food trucks, bounce houses, gaming trucks and more, it truly is a fun space for kids of all ages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that the youth realize that there are people in their community that care,\u201d said Meadows-Norwood.<\/p>\n
Each night starts with prayer and guest speakers from the community pouring into the kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cit helps me be a leader, you know whenever I\u2019m playing basketball in school or AAU,\u201d said SOY participant Kaliel McNeely.<\/p>\n
They have also added a youth mental health aspect with professionals equipped and on-site.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that youth are experiencing a lot of different things in their lives and so we provide an avenue where if they need someone to talk to, we have people out here,\u201d said Meadows-Norwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great community for us kids to come play basketball and all of that,\u201d said Godwin.<\/p>\n
Anywhere from 200 to 250 kids show up for the fun that will happen every Friday except July Fourth weekend, starting at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people in the community that are vested in seeing our youth succeed,\u201d said Meadows-Norwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just helps me become a better leader,\u201d said McNeely.<\/p>\n
There is no preregistration to participate, and anyone is welcome to come out. There is also a need for sponsorship and volunteers. <\/p>\n
They can be reached by email @soyyouthokc@gmail.com or through their Facebook page @soyokc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY – It\u2019s summer, and kids need something to do. It\u2019s time to bring out the basketballs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-739311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}