April 16, 2024 Building Our Core Assets at a Phoenix Suns Game Do you remember your first time at an NBA game?! Nate*, one of the youth enrolled in our program at Friends of the Children – Phoenix, recently got to have that experience alongside his Friend, Joey. When Joey picked Nate up from school, he knew they were headed somewhere but wasn’t sure where. Joey had hidden clues in the back seat of his car for Nate to find and try to guess where they were going. Upon finding the Phoenix Suns memorabilia, Nate immediately guessed that they were headed to the big game. Nate was excited during the dramatic starting lineup announcement and loved cheering for the Suns – especially when they scored! At one point in the game, Joey shared, the Suns were “down huge” to the opposing Los Angeles Clippers. Joey asked Nate how much they were down by, and Nate had to practice some subtraction to figure out that the Suns were losing by 30 points. Joey also took that opportunity to connect the score to one of our program’s core assets: problem solving. He talked with Nate about the ways the Suns could rally back from being down by so many points. Nate shared that if the Suns could score points and play defense, then they could win! Though the Suns didn’t win the game, they are headed to the playoffs with a new fan in Nate, who thanked Joey for taking him to his first NBA game. We’d also like to say a big thank you to the anonymous donor who shared these tickets with us. Community support allows us to share opportunities like this with our wonderful youth! *Name changed to protect privacy.