Well this all started with another site on SBN, Blazers Edge. They community over at BE donated/fundraised enough money to send roughly 90 underprivileged children from the Portland, Oregon area to a Trailblazer basketball game. At a glance it might not seem like a big deal but here is a comment that one of the teachers of some of the students sent in a e-mail.

First things...Thank you all so very much for making this happen.  For all the weather related missteps this went off without a hitch.  I can't get over how perfectly it happened today for our merry little band.  I was worried that people weren't going to be able to show up at the last minute but we were at full capacity of 8th and 9th graders right off the bat.  Everyone that wanted to come was able. 

We met up to have dinner before the game and then make our way to the Rose Garden.  The guys were happy to see each other after a week off and most importantly not be stuck in their homes.  Stir crazy/boredom was the big topic over dinner.  On the train ride in conversation switched over to the game.  The kids seemed to know the most about Oden, Sergio and Rudy.  The native Spanish speakers in the group were outraged that Rudy wasn't a starter and I think Oden is a bit more relatable to the average 13/14 year old then Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.  They wanted to know about the players from Toronto who to watch and if it was going to be a close game.  I felt bad for not scouting out the Raptors first.  My basketball cred took a big dive for not having my normal amount of information.   We talk about basketball a lot at school. 

Back to the narrative, after we crossed the bridge they seemed get a little bit more nervous/excited.  The guys hovered around me until they had their tickets in their hot little hands.  The one thought that kept going through my head the whole night was how kidlike they seemed.  At school they try to be so tough, street-wise, sarcastic and generally more grown-up than they should be. But tonight they were just excited and happy to be there.

During the game they were pretty quiet...I took the seat further away thinking that they probably would have more fun with their buddies without the awesomeness of having a female teacher monitoring their language.  However it was sort of a moot point because they were transfixed, that sort of glazed over staring intently look that I normally associate with video games and TV watching.  During timeouts they were watching the crowd, the big screen and the DJ.  The biggest laughs came from the Greg Oden question/answer video and the Rudy Language Lesson.  However they were pretty confused by the word...It wasn't until later that I realized that Catalan is his first language.  As for the game I had a difficult time getting them to talk about it, I think they were on sensory overload and were just taking it all in.  I could tell that they were having a great time...they were clapping along with every cheer...standing up on the big plays.  It was a great night a real highlight of the school year for me and for the guys. 

Thank you very much for all of this.

I just thought it would be a great idea since we have such a great online community we could hopefully spread that into the real life communities and share the love of our Miami Dolphins.

I am not asking for money right now. I am just trying to gauge interest and put it into peoples minds. I am from Oregon and have no connections to Miami so if someone who lives in the area can offer any advice, it is glady welcomed. Thank you everyone and please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Thank You