Nearly four years ago, Bears’ basketball star Tim Cooney, BSBA’14, had an idea to turn abandoned city lots into community basketball courts. He blogged about his dream right here on the Olin Blog:
My idea, Project Blacktop, is to turn empty unused lots in the city of St. Louis into basketball courts. The idea is to beautify these empty lots with basketball courts which look nice and appealing when you drive by them. The continuation of Project Blacktop is to host youth basketball clinics for neighborhood kids, and summer adult pickup basketball games and leagues. The idea is for these courts to be active, positive spaces for the community. The idea relies on the courts being used regularly and becoming positive spaces for community building events.
Cooney submitted his idea to Rally St. Louis, a new (at the time) online platform to crowdfund and support ideas to make St. Louis a better place. $10,000 and three years later, Cooney’s Project Blacktop is a reality. Watch video report on KMOV-TV here.
Congratulations to Tim on pursuing his hoop dreams and making St. Louis a better place. Tim Cooney is currently a district manager at Anheuser-Busch InBev in Syracuse, NY.
Image: Courtesy of KMOV-TV
