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Hoops Exhibition Scheduled

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By KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: February 11, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Get ready for dazzling ball-handling tricks and high-flying slam dunks.

Recently relocated to 4114 Tonga Lane, Suite 3B, New Port Richey, the Women's Resource Center of Tampa Bay is a nonprofit charitable organization providing shelter for displaced women and their children.

Using a seven-step system, the center not only helps women during difficult times in their lives but also helps the women identify and break the behavior cycles and thought patterns that got them in the situation.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the center will welcome the Harlem Ambassadors to Gulf Middle School for a basketball spectacle fundraiser. Based in Fort Collins, Colo., the Harlem Ambassadors are a professional team that travels the United States and Canada.

The team combines time-tested comedy routines and superb basketball skills in a display that appeals to young and old.

Many of the Ambassadors' appearances are tied to fundraising efforts. Susan Stallard, the Women's Resource Center's founder and director, would like to make a game visit by the Ambassadors an annual event for the center.

For this inaugural game, Stallard is rushing to find sponsors and volunteers to help provide all the elements it takes to put on a charity basketball game.

The Ambassadors will take on the Some of My Best Friends Hoopstars. First on the list: an opposing team for the Ambassadors. The opposing team is being sponsored by local businesses and friends and family. For $120, a business can sponsor a player, coach or referee. Players also are accepting the challenge and coming from a four-county area to play in this exhibition game: Pasco, Hernando, Hillsborough and Pinellas.

Anyone interested in sponsoring the team should call Stallard as soon as possible at (727) 326-5320.

"We could really use uniforms," Stallard said.

Anyone with a set of basketball team jerseys is encouraged to step up. The jerseys can be any colors except black or dark red, which are the Ambassadors' colors. Light colored jerseys are preferred.

Also, if there is a local hotel or motel that would care to make a donation in terms of accommodations for the team, Stallard said, their generosity would be duly recognized in the game programs. The same goes for any local transportation company that wishes to contribute by getting the team from place to place.

Donations of sports drinks, juices, water and tissues also are being sought.

TICKETS

Advance tickets are on sale to see the Harlem Ambassadors at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gulf Middle School, 6419 Louisiana Ave., New Port Richey. Advance tickets are $5 for kindergarten through 12th-grade students, $6 for seniors and $8 for adults. Tickets are available at the Gulf Middle school front office or by calling the Women's Resource Center of Tampa Bay Director Susan Stallard at (727) 326-5320. Tickets at the door will be $6 for students, $7 for seniors and $10 for other adults.

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