Cougars and Marvell Hold Charity Basketball Scrimmage for Food Pantry

From left:  JP Patrick Roberson, representing
the Food Pantry, CHS Ad Russell Smith, and
CHS Employee Vernetha Jackson with the
food donated at the charity scrimmage at CHS.

The Helena-West Helena Central Cougars and the Marvell Mustangs held a charity basketball scrimmage to collect food for the local food pantry in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday.   The effort led to a donation of over 320 cans of food from the Cougar Nation and Mustang Fans.


Central Athletic Director Russell Smith was impressed with the generosity shown by Cougar Fans.  He said, "I am always impressed at how generous our people are. We have many good people to work with and who support our teams.  I appreciate Coach Thrower and Coach McGruder at Marvell for working with us on this and look forward to having them back for our Christmas tournament next month."


The donation is the second such effort to collect for the food pantry by CHS Athletics this year.  Earlier, the Coach Smith's football team held an intrasquad scrimmage for that purpose as well.  Justice of the Peace and City Treasurer Patrick Roberson expressed his gratitude on behalf of the food pantry.  He said, "Central has been an awesome supporter of our work.  I appreciate Coach Smith working to making these events happen because the donations are very important to the efforts of the food pantry."


School Board President Andrew Bagley praised the efforts of the Central staff for showing the community how caring Cougar Nation is.  He said, "I am proud to be able to work with good people doing good work who set an example for how we should serve others.  Coach Smith and the basketball coaching staff should be commended for setting up this event and I want to thank the Cougar Fans and the Marvell fans for showing up on a cold night to make their donation and watch some exciting basketball.  Great things are happening every day in HWHSD."