'It means everything to me.' Cincinnati Youth Collaborative hosting 19th annual Dribblethon

While attending the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), Bry Hall was looking to broaden her horizons.

That's when she saw a flyer from Saturday Hoops, a group mentoring program for a "growing group of friends and kids who meet on Saturday mornings for some fun, faith and positive role modeling, according to its website.

This particular flyer was for a Saturday Hoops event called, "Dribblethon." It sparked Hall's interest at first glance.

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"My school's foundation was the arts, but this was different," she said. "I wanted to meet new people and really play basketball. My friends were telling me about the opportunities and the experience, and I felt like it would be awesome."

Hall said a program like Saturday Hoops spreads positivity in a time where the news cycle mostly focuses on the negative.

"We're in a society where there's so much bad, but there's a lot of good that we don't see," Hall said. "Dribblethon is good. I feel like this is the time we all come out as a community and it's incredible to do that and have fun.

"This is the foundation of showing the kids to stop the violence and to come together as a family."

Hall was quickly hooked on the program, going to events and meeting new people who are close friends today. Now in college at Northern Kentucky University, she's extremely grateful for the flyer she saw one summer day before her sophomore year at SCPA.

"I wouldn't be at NKU without Saturday Hoops. It means everything to me," Hall said. "They donate their time to people telling me about the school and taking me to the visits. Dribblethon started all of that."

While she hasn't been able to volunteer as much as she would've liked, Hall will be back where it all started, at the 19th annual Dribblethon on Saturday, May 13, at Ziegler Park downtown.

"Saturday Hoops is about me coming back," Hall said. "This is the time where high-schoolers, people from college, long-term volunteers, we all come together. It's incredible for a non-profit, just to see it grow."

Saturday Hoops, which officially merged with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative last year, offers its services year-round in four different Cincinnati neighborhoods, according to longtime volunteer Adam Turer. Members of the Cincinnati Bengals and UC Bearcats are expected to attend and there will be a knockout tournament with prizes along with a DJ, dancing and merchandise fundraisers to help fund the program's expansion.

The "fun-filled block party" was started 19 years ago by Ed Berg, the program's late founder., and has grown to new heights over nearly two decades.

"Dribblethon has gotten a lot bigger than when it first happened," said Marcus Brown, who started in the Saturday Hoops program as a child and stayed through high school. "I like that Dribblethon is getting bigger and we're actually getting more kids, as well, so they can see how a good community can look."

Brown, a 2021 Shroder High School graduate, now comes back to volunteer at the event as someone with first-hand experience on how the program can lead and inspire the city's youth.

"I'm a lot younger and I feel like having a young person talk to the younger kids, you have more of their background," Brown said. "I'm not saying older adults have the same background, but when you're 16, you can relate more to the 20-year-old guy. It's about letting them have more belief. Believing in yourself, believing in other people − that's a big one that I have learned and want them to learn."

Drifbblethon will be 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at Ziegler Park, 1322 Sycamore St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. Free lunch will be served at noon and the knockout brackets start at 1 p.m. The bracket age ranges are: 7 years old and under (dribble knockout); 8-12 years old; 13-17 years old and 18 and up. Register at https://www.cycyouth.org/dribblethon/.