As all of you know, the Church has an ongoing relationship with Hartman Grade School through

which we provide many volunteer services to the school. Last year, a number of us, under the
leadership of Greg Bates, helped teach basketball skills to students as a part of Hartman's
after-school program. Unfortunately, this year the Hartman gym is not available for after-school
basketball. However, we have another opportunity to assist the school in basketball activities.

Andrew Smith, our basketball contact at Hartman, and adults from other KCMO grade schools
have organized their own version of "March Madness" for grade-school students. Beginning the
week of March 2 and running through the week of April 6 (excluding the week of March 16 which
is Spring Break), the participating schools will hold an inter-school league. Second- and ThirdGrade students will play in a league on Tuesday nights and Fourth- through Sixth-Grade
students will play in a league on Thursday nights. The league will play at Satchel Paige
Elementary School located at 3301 East 75th Street (on the southeast side of the intersection of
75th Street and Highway 71 (Bruce Watkins Freeway)). There will be three games each night:
5:30 p.m., 6:15 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. We should plan on being there by at least 5:15 p.m. and
staying until 8:00 p.m. Each game will have two 16-minute halves. Mandatory substitution will
occur every 4 minutes so everyone gets a chance to play. Score may or may not be kept,
depending on the situation and skill levels. The teams will be composed of whatever students
from the school want to participate; players will not be "selected."

Andrew has asked us to provide at least 4 (and hopefully more) people each Tuesday and
Thursday night during the 5 weeks of league play to serve in various capacities: officiate, score
keeper, time keeper, coach/sit on the bench with the teams, officiate and do whatever is helpful
to make the league games run smoothly. Referee shirts and whistles will be supplied. We will
not be transporting players.

In summary, we will need at least 4 people to help out in the following evenings:

First- and Second-Grade League (Tuesday nights): March 3, March 10, March 24, March 31
and April 7.

Fourth- through Sixth-Grade League (Thursday nights): March 5, March 12, March 26, April 2
and April 9.

Please let one of us know by Tuesday, February 24, what evenings you can participate. It is
first come, first served and you can sign up for as many evenings as you want. Please respond
to this e-mail or call George Gordon or Randy Irey (at the numbers below) to let us know when
you will be available.

Last year's basketball clinics were really fun (lots of stories to tell) and the opportunity to interact
with the kids was "priceless." We anticipate our experience this year will be the same or better!

Thank you for your interest and commitment to the community.

Randy Irey

randyirey@gmail.com
816-304-9805

George Gordon
geogordon3@gmail.com
913-671-0076