SRHA plans Father’s Day event

Published 9:14 pm Friday, June 12, 2015

The Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority is partnering with other organizations in the community to present a Father’s Day Basketball Tournament this month.

The event is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s National Father’s Day Initiative, designed to encourage greater involvement by fathers in the lives of their children, and also to honor and recognize fathers.

Smith said it would be the first time the SRHA has held a basketball tournament for Father’s Day. Last year, he said, the Father’s Day initiative involved a trip to a Norfolk Tides baseball game.

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“This time we are doing something different,” Smith said. “We figured that the fathers and kids would like playing basketball. So we came up with the idea, ‘Hey, let’s do a basketball tournament.’”

The event on June 20, between 10 a.m. and noon in The Salvation Army gymnasium on Bank Street, is open to everyone in the community.

Smith said there would be two trophies: one for the winner of the opening game, between Suffolk Police Department and Team Suffolk, and another for the winner among other participants.

Also planned, Smith said, are door prizes, a cookout and music. Police officer Andre Sparks will talk to the kids about the importance of fatherhood.

“I hope that it will be an opportunity to build partnerships within the community,” Smith said. “Hopefully it changes the mindset of people, as far as working together.”

Reflecting on fatherhood, Smith said a father is very important in the life of a child. “It alleviates truancy, and a lot of school problems,” he said, adding that “just being there as a male mentor” is important.