Rose basketball highlights
FRI.| 4-12-24 | ENTERTAINMENT
Issue 1
September 27th, 2019
Bland takes a plunge into charity
FRI. | 03-11-22 | NEWS
The Greenville Women's League initiated their inaugural “Freezin' For A Reason” Fundraiser, which takes place on Saturday, Mar. 26 at Wildwood Park. This fundraiser aims to support local charities that directly impact Greenville and Pitt County.
The rules for this fundraiser are that local community leaders participating in this fundraiser support a charity of their choice, and anyone can send the challengers votes (each vote costs $5). That money goes directly to that charity and whoever has the most votes by the day of the event does not have to jump into water at Wildwood Park. Voters can donate as many times as they like during the duration of the fundraiser, which started on Tuesday, Mar. 1 and concluded Thursday, Mar. 24.
The organization that began this fundraiser, the Greenville Women's League, is an organization of women focused on serving the community. The local challengers include the ECU women's basketball coach, Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly, religious leaders and business owners. Another challenger is J.H. Rose’s head football coach, William Bland. Bland has been a behavioral support teacher at Rose for around seven years and a football coach for 14 years.
“I got a call from one of our assistant principals and she explained the fundraiser, and at first I told her no because I don’t like getting in water, especially cold water,” Bland said. “But the community has been backing me up since I’ve been the head coach here as well as supported us all the way to the state championship, and I wanted to give
Image courtesy of NC Stop Human Trafficking
back, so I decided to participate."
Bland decided to donate his proceeds to the Police Athletic League. PAL (The Police Athletic League) is a youth crime prevention program that utilizes educational, athletic and recreational activities to build trust and understanding between the youth and Greenville Police.
“I chose PAL because we have a lot of athletes here at Rose that have gone through PAL football and basketball programs,” Bland said. “I just wanted to acknowledge how blessed and thankful we are that the police are getting involved with the youth and trying to keep kids off of the streets.”
The votes or donations can come from anyone willing to give. The platform chosen for collection donations has been shared on social media, the J.H. Rose website and in emails sent by Principal Thomas to students and parents.
“I’m extremely honored and blessed that the Greenville Women's League recognized me as a community leader and reached out to me to participate in this fundraiser," Bland said.
Bland hopes that this encourages other community leaders to participate in this fundraiser next year and brings in even more donations for the community.
