Hoops of Hope

 

Hoops of Hope (http://www.hoopsofhope.org) is a 501c3 organization based in Mesa, Arizona, that was founded in 2004, by then nine year old, Austin Gutwein in order to raise money for AIDS orphans in Africa. Austin was moved to take action after seeing a video by World Vision about a girl named Maggie from Africa who lost both her parents to AIDS. Austin was sponsored a dollar a shot by friends and local businesses to shoot 2,057 free throws on World AIDS Day, one for every child orphaned from AIDS during an average school day. Since then, thousands of people from seventeen countries have participated in Hoops of Hope events, raising over $1.5 million to date. 100% of the funds raised have been used in cooperation with World Vision to fund school, medical clinic, water system and 2 orphan hope centers in Zambia.