NBA CARES! DO YOU?

Posted on 21 May 2016 at 12:04

(Disclaimer: I do not own the NBA and WNBA Cares poster, the said poster belongs to the rightful owner; however, The image shown above is edited by wanderfulsoul)

Hello there humans! It’s another good month for us users here in BitLanders and for the whole BitLanders community for BitLanders is giving away a new double rewards blog for this month!! (Whoohoo!) I know! I know! I have said this line in my previous blog but wait! Let’s back up, did I say a new double rewards blog? I meant they are now giving 2 double rewards blogs for this month! Yup! You read it right, not one, but two double rewards blogs! It’s like Christmas in May here in BitLanders. The first one is, Blog about Sports and Social Good and earn Double Rewards and the second blog for this month is Blog about Gelato and earn Double Rewards. Awesome topics right? How can you say no to those topics? As awesome as it sounds, I have actually divided this blog into two parts because there is so much to talk about! In this blog, I will be discussing how bitLanders introduced a specific organization that is inspiring enough, my own thought s and opinions and what I’ve learned on the said specific organization that inspired me to continue helping others. (Hurrah!)

REHASH:

(Image by Wanderfulsoul)

A little bit of rehash, if you guys are a newbie here, last month Mr. Micky-the-slanted-salerno announced that you can earn more Kachings! by just answering the survey chat through Global chat. I have discussed everything I know about this awesome topic, so if you haven’t seen it or isn’t familiar with it, please do click this link and learn more about BITLANDERS SURVEY CHAT: A NEW WAY TO EARN REWARDS WHILE HAVING FUN! If you guys are already familiar with it, then let’s proceed. As what I’ve mentioned in my previous blog, in order to participate in the fun and enjoyable survey chat, you must first launch the global chat in the lower right corner of the webpage. But that was before when there was no changes! Now, once you log-in to bitLanders.com, the global chat box will automatically open and the survey bots will private message you and start the survey! (yeay!) Once you start answering the survey, you’ll get more and more points until you’re done! It’s simple as that. In my case, I was having a hard time answering the survey chat because the survey chat for sports is always not available for me. Good thing my fellow bitLanders user Shaiera shared her photos where I found out that I have already answered the said survey and this is the reason why Mr. Micky bot didn’t show up in the chat box for the survey (whew!) By the way, shout out to SHAIERA! Thank you for sharing your photos dear! Alright, so you haven’t got a chance to answer the survey chat? Worry not humans! Just visit Sir Micky’s blog and find the link to the survey about sports and social good or click this link here and it will automatically go to your Bit-Miles account and start the survey chat. (P.S. Enjoy! )

When I saw Shaiera’s photos about sports in the survey chat in her gallery section, in which I later on realized I already answered the same survey chat way back when they were still giving away + 10 bm for each answers. (haha) If you read again in my previous blog, one thing I liked about the survey chat is the new things I learned during the survey, this includes the advertisements the company did through the survey chat. I remembered that Mr. Micky introduced NBA cares through the said survey chat.

WHAT IS NBA CARES?

(Image source: Nba.com)

Launched last October 2005, NBA CARES is a charity organization that helps resolve important social issues around United States of America and the whole world. For 10 years, NBA cares already raised enough funds for charities, built places for the children and their family to live in and gave hands-on services to inspire and educate the youngsters. Currently, its goal is to build a total of 1000 additional places for the youngsters to live in, learn or play, teach 15 million youths to be inspired and learn basketball values. NBA cares also planned to impart an additional 3 million hours of hands – on services by 2025. Later on, as I checked out the NBA CARES website, I learned a lot more on the said organization.

NBA CARES PROGRAMS:

In order for the NBA Cares to help more, NBA cares are has different programs for everyone. Currently, there are 6 programs that NBA CARES is doing, the following are:

❋ Hoops for Troops:

“NBA Cares Hoops for Troops is a year-round initiative led by the NBA, its teams and players in collaboration with the Department of Defense, USO and other military and veteran-serving organizations to honor active and retired service men and women and their families.

This season, the NBA and Department of Defense will continue our shared Commitment to Service, where teams and players participate side-by-side with military members in hands-on service events around the country, helping to improve our communities." —hoopsfortroops.nba.com

Check out Hoop for Troops to learn more about the said program.

❋ My Brother’s Keeper:

“My Brother’s Keeper is multi-sector effort launched by President Obama and the White House to help put boys and young men of color on a pathway to success by building education, mentor and job opportunities in traditionally underserved communities.

The NBA, the National Basketball Players Association and the National Basketball Retired Players Association announced a five-year commitment to support My Brother’s Keeper in partnership with MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, Team Turnaround and the Council of Great City Schools.

As part of this commitment we will:

Support a public service campaign in partnership with MENTOR designed to recruit 25,000 new mentors, with a specific emphasis on recruiting men of color to serve as mentors

Work with educators in at-risk and turn-around schools to provide incentive programs that increase attendance and improve overall school performance.

Participate in a series of grassroots, “lessons in leadership and teamwork” workshops in schools and after-school organizations that will inspire boys and young men of color to take charge of their lives, make good decisions and be successful in their pursuit of education.” —cares.nba.com/my-brothers-keeper/

Check out My brother’s keeper to learn more about the said program. You can also click this link help become a mentor in your community.

❋ NBA FIT:

“Be Active, Eat Healthy and Play Together” —fit.nba.com

This program helps young ones stay physically fit! By just visiting fit.nba.com you can see how NBA players work out, gives you monthly health tips and more!

Check out their page by clicking this link to stay active and be healthy.

❋ NBA Green:

“Through NBA Green, the NBA has partnered with the Green Sports Alliance to generate awareness and funds for protecting the environment. The NBA is taking steps to be more environmentally friendly and will continue to explore ways of reducing its impact on the environment through community outreach programs, generating awareness among fans and greening its operations.” —green.nba.com

Go green! Click this link to learn more.

❋ Season of Giving:

It’s all in the name! NBA cares: Season of Giving is all about giving. Basically, NBA players gives things or food and the like for the less fortunate or to those who are in need. In the video below, you will be able to see how NBA players give through the spirit of thanksgiving.

(Video source:www.youtube.com" href="https://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank"> www.youtube.com)

❋ NBA Community Assist Award:

Since NBA players are doing good and gave commitment to the said programs above,

“Every month, the NBA chooses one player from across the league for the NBA Cares Community Assist Award presented by Kaiser Permanente. The award honors the NBA player who best reflects the passion that the league and its players have for giving back to their communities. This player is recognized for his outstanding efforts in the community and for his ongoing philanthropic and charitable work!” —communityassist.nba.com

As for the month of April 2016, Zach LaVine won the NBA Cares Community Assist Award. Check out the full story here.

To see the past winners and their stories, click this link.

NBA CARES COMMUNITY PARTNERS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP:

As Mr. Micky introduced NBA cares in the survey chat, he mentioned that

“NBA Cares works with internationally-recognized youth-serving programs that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes, including: Special Olympics, YMCA of the USA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Share Our Strength and GLSEN.” —cares.nba.com

As I looked into the website, I came across NBA Cares’ partner organizations. As I counted it, a total of 27 organizations are cooperating with them. If you click each link below, you will be able to see their webpages and from there, you can also help your chosen organizations! As cool as it sounds, please take time to check out the organizations below.

(Image by Wanderfulsoul)

Autism Speaks || Boys and Girls Club of America || Beyond sports || City year || The partnership at drugfree.org || GLSEN || HandsOn Network || Healthcorps || Hoops4Hope || Hoops for St. Jude || Kaboom || Let’s move. Active schools || Cure Pancreatic cancer. Lustgarden Foundation || Make a wish || MENTOR || NoKidHungry || NothingButNets.net || NRDC || Prevent Child Abuse. America || Rebuild Together || American Red Cross || Save The Children || Special Olympics || Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund || Unicef || World Vision || The YMCA

By clicking the links provided above, you can donate and help these charity organizations and NBA Cares.

Alright humans, I actually found out that aside from NBA Cares, there is also WNBA CARES! Curious? Well, I was too!

What is WNBA Cares?

(Image source: www.underconsideration.com)

So what is WNBA Cares? According to their website,

“Through WNBA Cares, our teams, players and partners are deeply committed to creating programs that improve the quality of life for all people, with a special emphasis on education, youth and family development and health and wellness. Whether it’s working with schools or community-based organizations, partnering with service-based volunteer organizations, teams maximize their impact in the local communities throughout the season.” —www.wnba.com

WNBA has also programs such as:

✿ Jr. NBA

“As part of its 20th season tip-off, the WNBA, its teams and players are celebrating Jr. WNBA Week from May 7-15! The Jr. NBA is the league’s youth basketball participation program for boys and girls ages 6-14 that teaches the fundamentals and values of the game.” —www.wnba.com

To learn more about Jr. NBA, click this link.

✿WNBA Pride

“The WNBA will celebrate inclusion and equality throughout the month of June as part of WNBA pride month.” —www.wnba.com

To learn more about WNBA Pride, click this link or visit www.wnba.com

✿ WNBA Cares Breast Awareness week

“As part of Breast Health Awareness Week (September 6-13), the WNBA and its teams will help raise awareness and inspire others in the fight against breast cancer.”—www.wnba.com

To learn more visit www.wnba.com

✿ WNBA Cares Community Assist Award presented by State Farm

Just like NBA Cares community Assist award, WNBA also has their own version of this award.

“The WNBA Cares Community Assist Award presented by State Farm is awarded monthly during the season to the player that best reflects the WNBA’s passion to make a difference in the community.” —www.wnba.com

To learn more click this link.

WNBA Cares has also WNBA Hoops for troops and WNBA Fit platform which is just similar to NBA cares’ Hoops for troops and NBA Cares Fit.

WHAT WANDERFULSOUL THINKS ABOUT NBA CARES AND WNBA CARES:

To tell you frankly, I don’t do sports. Nope! Nope! No! I tried Karate when I was still in Highschool, it was good ‘cause I lost a lot of weight but I suck at it! Just imagine the bruises all over my body. (HAHAHA! *facepalm*) My friends encouraged me to play basketball since they think I’m tall enough to play (which I’m not! Pshh!) but I’m too lazy to run! (ROFL! *double facepalm*) But what I don’t suck is how I always wanted to help those who are in need. Yup! Social good baby! When I learned about NBA cares and WNBA cares, I told myself that it’s really good that NBA players are not only into basketball. These players also help young ones to learn and inspire them. As we know, children especially those who are a big fan of Basketball which is also popular in the United States by the way, look up to these professional NBA players. Through NBA Cares and WNBA cares organization in cooperation with their partners and through their programs, they were able to help millions of children in their community. Aside from that, they are also setting goals build more houses or places for children to learn and live with their family, donate charities and the like by 2025. Imagine that? You can just see how these professional players through this organization created a very big impact to their community and to the whole world.

My favorite programs in the said organization are:

❶ My brother’s keeper

(Image source: www.cares.nba.com)

What I like about this program is how NBA players and volunteers became a mentor especially to those children who doesn’t have someone turn to. These mentors are equipped to help young boys and educate them and give them job opportunities in the future.

❷ NBA Green

(Image source: www.green.nba.com)

Aside from helping children, NBA cares also help save the environment which is a current problem for us. Environmental issues play a very important role in our community today and NBA Cares is making a change. Kudos!

❸ Season of Giving

(Image source: www.cares.nba.com)

Season of giving is also one of my favorites because this doesn’t only apply to children but it also applies to adults. When you hit rock bottom and you have nothing, receiving something to those who cares for you would really make you appreciate them. I mean, it’s not always when you hit rock bottom that you only appreciate them, but that happens. Also, when you give something to the less fortunate, it melts your heart and you would feel very good afterwards because you know you did something good for others.

❹ WNBA Pride

(Image source: www.wnba.com)

I’m not gay, but I support LGBT community. It’s just so annoying for me that some people doesn’t understand LGBT. I mean, they are also humans and they need to be respected. I can’t believe that some people actually disgrace them for being gay. Some would laugh at them for having same sex marriage. I mean, some people just need to be educated. Let’s raise the LGBT pride flag!

❺ WNBA Cares Breast Awareness week

(Image source: www.wnba.com)

Having cancer is just very sad. As when I’ve learned, cancer hurts the patient but it also hurt more those people who are left behind if someone died due to cancer. Every time I hear stories about a cancer patient, it just makes me cry. The WNBA Cares breast awareness is a very good program for women. Through this program, women are more informed about their health and can have prevention. “Prevention is better than cure” so I’ve been told.

Before BitLanders introduced NBA Cares, I wasn’t familiar with the organization. I didn’t have a clue that NBA players are also helping others. All I know was that they play good basketball. As a Filipino, basketball is a very popular game in our country. Watching their games gives you a thrill. It’s good that BitLanders is taking part into advertising NBA Cares for us members in BitLanders through the survey chat. I learned that NBA Players are not always on the basketball court dribbling, but they are also involved in other stuffs like NBA Cares. I think that NBA Cares is a great opportunity for young children to learn and grow to become our future leaders. These programs are very helpful not only to children, but also to adults and to our environment. NBA cares and WNBA Cares brings a lot joy especially to the people who are part of their journey. NBA Cares and WNBA Cares inspired me to continue helping those who are in need. NBA and WNBA players are using their skills to teach and inspire children. There are a lot of organizations in our society that needs volunteers; we can visit our local organizations that have the same mission — to solve social issues in our society.

Just a few reminders to you guys, you can donate by clicking the links I provided above especially under the subtopic NBA CARES COMMUNITY PARTNERS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP. You can also visit your local government unit to check out organizations that can help resolve social issues in your place.

It’s not over guys! Please do check out the continuation of this blog, WANDERFULSOUL’S REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE ON SPORTS, EDUCATION AND EMPOWERMENT by clicking this link here.

This is it for now humans! Don’t forget to check out the sequel of this blog!

Thanks ahead! (teehee!)

TTFN!

Ta! Ta! For Now!