This spring, following a monumental 2016 Recreation Youth Basketball season with 660 teams and more than 700 young people playing, the Department of Parks and Recreation is pleased to sponsor the Second Annual Live Civilly March Madness Tournament of Giving! This three verses three basketball tournament is scheduled for Saturday, March 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to youth and adults alike.
The March Madness Tournament of Giving is open to all basketball players in grades three through 12 as well as adults who are just looking for a friendly, fun and competitive tournament that supports a good cause. The March Madness Tournament of Giving is designed for boys and girls and games are played in appropriate age brackets. Each age bracket is guaranteed a three game minimum and prizes for the winning team. Last year, more than 80 youth and adults competed and enjoyed the three verses three action along with the three-point contest.
The March Madness Tournament of Giving is an annual event that supports Community Outreach Programs through the Department of Parks and Recreation. The tournament helps to fund nutritional outreach programs like the ExCELS Snack Program (Recreation Open Gym) and the new, monthly Live Civilly Make-N-Take program for youth grades fourth through sixth. The ExCELS Snack program, now in its fourth year, provides healthy snacking options to more than 200 bodies weekly during the Recreation Open Gym. Live Civilly, in partnership with the Moorestown Ministerium brings fresh fruit, healthy snacks like organic granola bars, high nutrient snack bars and trail mixes to the Open Gym.
The Make-N-Take is a new healthy cooking initiative being offered in the Recreation Commercial Kitchen by Live Civilly to help educate young people about easy, tasty and healthy food options that they can make themselves. A combination of healthy eating, nutritional awareness and consumer science will be combined to help young people understand that healthy food can be accessible and inexpensive if you know how to use it. The program is designed around a “food pantry shopping list” that focuses on many basic, inexpensive food ingredients and incorporates basic ingredients combined with fresh options, like those grown in the Live Civilly Community Supported Gardens, to provide a healthy meal for the participant and their families.
Please save the date, Saturday, March 12, for the Live Civilly March Madness Tournament of Giving, at the Church Street Recreation Center. For more information or to register for the event, please visit the Live Civilly website at www.livecivilly.org.
