The Thomas Worthington High School men’s basketball team is on a mission to help families in the community. This campaign to help Buddy Bags started becoming popular with a publicity stunt by coach Jake Guthrie. He broke the world record for the longest backwards basketball shot and tweeted out the video. With a little help from senior Tanner Cowgill, the clip got popular and ended up on the local news as well as ESPN’s Sportscenter Top 10. This popularity helped give Guthrie and the basketball team “fame” so they could address an actual problem in Worthington.

Guthrie gave out a mason jar to every member on each of the three basketball teams, including the coaches, to fill with spare change. Each jar has a piece of paper that tells the goal that we are hoping to reach. This paper reads:

As a member of the Thomas Worthington Basketball program, it is important for us to not only learn the game of basketball and grow together as a family but also to serve the community and help people. You may not think you can make much of an impact on your own but even the smallest amount of effort can CHANGE the community. Over the next two weeks, we would like you to spread the message of a local organization while collecting change in your mason jar to be donated to Buddy Bags, an organization that helps Worthington kids by providing food for them to take home over the weekend. All of the money will be used to purchase food items that will be distributed to kids all across Worthington School District. The small amount of CHANGE that YOU collect will make a BIG DIFFERENCE in young people’s everyday lives. YOU CAN MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE’S LIFE.

Offer a basketball player some spare change for their mason jars to contribute to a good cause. They’ll be glad to take it and you’ll have satisfaction in knowing that you helped make a difference in someone’s life. The total goal of this mission is to have 85 mason jars full and turned in by December 17. So who knows, the money you donate might help a friend of yours or community member who’s personal circumstances you don’t know.