Clubhouse

Winner unruffled by prize heist

Generally, stealing the ball in basketball is a good thing, unless the ball in question is the major prize in a contest. Just ask the Kiwanis Club of Chapel Hill-Carrboro, North Carolina. The club recently staged a drawing in which the top prize was a basketball signed by Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, and Roy Williams, coaching legends at the University of North Carolina.

Unfortunately, the ball disappeared sometime during the club’s recent Pancake Jamboree fundraiser. The ball was on display during the jamboree, Kiwanian Clarence Whitefield explains, but as members were cleaning up afterward, they realized the ball was missing.

Fortunately, the winner, Susan Worley, agreed to an alternate arrangement, in which the club would donate half of the proceeds—about US$150—to Volunteers for Youth, an organization that works to prevent juvenile delinquency. Worley, who is executive director of the organization, appreciates the irony.

“We’re a delinquency-prevention program,” she told the local media, “and someone stole the basketball, so we’ll use the money to try to prevent delinquency.”