LYNN — For the second straight year, Lynn kids are shooting hoops to stop violence at the Demakes Family YMCA Friday nights in the “Stop The Violence: Lynn” (STVL) Basketball League.
The STVL campaign, which originated in 2014, has now brought a summer basketball league to the area for the second straight year, helping to provide kids with an outlet for entertainment during the summer.
“2014, we started this program to start getting kids involved in other things and just so they would not be involved in violence,” said STVL Co-Founder and Ward 6 City Councilor Fred Hogan.
He also explained, “We had a couple athletes in Lynn either get shot or stabbed, so we decided to start this campaign to try and make a difference so kids would have other positive things to do in their life than resort to violence.”
Not only does the STVL help keep kids out of trouble during the summer months, but they also dole out scholarships. STVL awarded Lynn Tech grad Aleya Hill and Lynn Classical grad Reese Brinkler $500 scholarships for college.
Last year, a generous donation by the Curtis Family allowed STVL to not only give out scholarships but set up leagues like the ones running now, all free of charge.
As the league has grown in popularity, so has the number of teams. Now there are two divisions, one for high school and the other for middle schoolers, each comprising six teams.
“We used to do a Friday night league, not with STVL, years ago, and we decided to bring it back last year because the concept was really good; Friday night, three hours, three games, six teams, and it was good to get kids off the street, especially during summer time,” said Hogan.
The concept has been so well-received that Hogan now says, “In one year’s time, we expanded from six high school teams to six middle school teams. So now we are servicing around 200 Lynn kids for free.”
Currently, the league has completed two of its six weeks with an eye on a finishing date of July 29. Upon reaching week six, the top four teams from the high school and middle school divisions will make the playoffs. Following playoff matchups, champions of both divisions will be crowned.
While Hogan acknowledged that STVL cannot stop all violence, programs and leagues like these in the area help keep kids safe.
“We have given out over 30,000 t-shirts with the words Stop the Violence: Lynn on it in our eight years, and those shirts are all over the city. Our thing was we understand we are not going to stop the violence, but we understand if we save one kid and we get the message out there we are doing our job,” said Hogan.
He added, “We have definitely saved some kids because we have had kids come up to us and say what you guys have done out there has made me do the right thing, and that is really huge.”
