Guru School

Hello, my name is Micheal Jones and I am from Durham, North Carolina. I am currently working as a Teacher's Assistant at an elementary school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools System. As much as I love being in the classroom, my real passion is being a basketball skills and development trainer.  Over the last five years, despite starting off extremely small, I've now become one of the biggest basketball trainers in the area. I'm blessed to say my basketball program, The Guru School, now consists of more than 50 kids, ranging from as young as 3rd grade up to professional basketball players both in the States and abroad.  I've always been able to work with my kids at various school gyms and recreation centers in the area but as of late, things have gotten extremely difficult. Even before COVID, the gyms I would normally use started to no longer offer the gym for kids or they would charge up to $100 or more an hour for the kids and I to use them. With that being said, I've been forced to take my work outside to different parks in the area. Outdoors works fine for us the majority of the time but often it's extremely hot or we are forced to cancel everything due to the rain. Not to mention once the winter comes, it's too cold to have kids outdoors. My kids all want to be successful, they all work extremely hard and recently I've realized it's my duty to try to provide them with a space that they can effectively chase their dreams. It's now my goal to open a gym for kids. A black owned gym that would be the only gym in the area not owned or operated by the city and doesn't need an expensive membership to be apart of. But why stop there? It's also my goal to use this space as a youth center that also offers an afterschool program through the school system, including tutoring services and a summer camp for kids. I see this being way bigger than just a gym where kids get better at basketball. I've researched afterschool and summer camp prices in the area and it's my intention to provide an affordable and also high quality learning experience for children. Along side providing scholarships for children in need. After some searching, I found a space that would be perfect for what I'm trying to accomplish. Although space wise it's perfect, it's going to require a good amount of renovation on the inside. Upon further research, I quickly realized the place that I dream for this to be is going to be extremely expensive. Between the cleaning, painting, installing a basketball court with goals and an HVAC unit, basketballs, other exercise equipment, rent, snacks, carpeting for learning spaces, laptops and insurance, we are in need of close to $60,000. I'm very blessed in the fact that I've figured out my passion in life and at this point, I'm simply asking you to help me take my passion to a different level. Not for me, for the kids and for my community. I've always prided myself on being the "basketball guy" but recently, given the current climate, I really want to be the basketball guy who's actively doing his part to change the world for the better. We hope to be in our new space by August 1st and fully renovated by September 1st. I can't express how much we appreciate your donation, no matter how big or small. Thank you.