On August 11, excitement filled the air as the Los Angeles Lakers along with the Lakers Youth Foundation held a court dedication and health and fitness clinic at the Personal involvement Center to celebrate the refurbishment of the basketball court. Since 1971, the Personal Involvement Center has been a social service agency based in the South Los Angeles community making an impact for the youth and families; improving the quality of lives.
Kiesha Nix, the Executive Director of the Lakers Youth Foundation explained how the court dedication was a long time in the making.
“We’ve been working on this basketball court for almost two years and we’ve finally were able to restore it and put the Lakers logo out here; and really give them here in the community what they were looking for, a safe place to play.”
After the court dedication, there was health and fitness clinic for kids ages 7-18 that featured instruction from The Lakers’ trainers on basketball and nutrition.
“This will be one of the principle places that the kids around will have to come around and play, have fun, safe; something I think is very important.” Lakers great Norm Nixon said.
“I think if you poll most of the players during my era, there was always a gym , a recreation center, and a coach that grabble all of us, pulled us in the gym, kept us out of trouble, and party responsible for all of us being in a positions to even try to get in the NBA; so we all have a place like this in our past.”
Since its establishment in 1992, the Lakers Youth Foundation has been specializing in helping underserved youth develop through education, health and wellness, and basketball. The foundation has restored over 40 gymnasiums throughout Los Angeles, and have done six in the last three years. The most recent court restoration being done at the Challengers Boys & Girls Club and will have a court dedication there soon.
