Joe Maloof is mobbed by a crowd of adoring basketball players

Big news from our partner school in Queens. About 200 students, teachers and chaperones from P.S. 160 came out on a hot June day to meet their newest and very coolest neighbor—Joe Maloof, owner of the Sacramento Kings and Palm Casino in Las Vegas. Students spent the day exploring Maloof’s brand new skate park in Flushing Meadows, watching a number of demonstrations from top-skateboarder Billy Rohan, and learning a little about fitness and healthy lifestyles.

After loading the kids with loot from Vans and Vitamin Water, Mr. Maloof was also kind enough to sign dozens of signatures and to take a few minutes to visit personally with the school’s basketball team. If the thank-you notes we received are any indication, we think he’s made 200 new friends for life.

The ladies of P.S 160 pause for a quick photo op pre-lunc

Beyond the brush with celebrity, though, the skate park field trip was a tremendous opportunity for our students to get excited about a new community resource right in their own backyards. And it’s a jump start on what we hope will be a new commitment to fitness and nutrition programs at our partner schools over the coming year.