KPLU is reporting that with the NBA deal for the Sonics stalling out, Chris Hansen has “temporarily handed over” his SODO warehouse to Columbia City A PLUS Youth Program
, an after school non-profit sports and mentoring program:
The move couldn’t come at a better time for the nonprofit, says its founder and executive director Tavio Hobson.
“The space that we’re currently in [in the Columbia City neighborhood] is actually being torn down, so our kids are going to be homeless, for lack of a better term,” Hobson said.
Haobson says Hansen had been interested in helping the organization for more than a year, but they hadn’t figured out exactly how until now.
The A PLUS program will move into the warehouse, located one block south of Safeco Field, in roughly one month. Hobson says the new space has enough room for a basketball court, two classrooms and a few offices for the organization’s 14 full-time staff.
The A PLUS program uses organized sports as a “hook,” Hobson says, to get students engaged with their education.
“We pick the kids up from school. We bring them on site. They get a healthy meal, because we want to make sure that they’re fed. After they get that healthy meal, they get intense academic tutoring,” Hobson said. “The saying in our program goes: ‘No academics, no sports.'”
To find out more about A PLUS and the move, click here to read the rest of the article or here to head to the official A PLUS website.
