| Pitcher Price donates clothes to Barfield School |
By: Lisa Marchesoni
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Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:49 pm
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Devil Rays pitcher David Price donated clothes and school supplies to Barfield Elementary. Price is flanked by parents Bonnie and Debbie. Accepting the gifts are Principal Judy Goodwin and counselor Marylyn Caperton.
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As a youth league basketball coach at Black Fox School, Judy Goodwin taught the young David Price about the basics of the game.
Price, now a pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, returned during the off-season to visit his former coach Thursday. Goodwin, who is about 5-feet-tall, glanced up at the pitcher over 6 feet tall, and told him she was proud of him.
She challenged him to avoid temptations because children look up to athletes.
“Athletes have to realize how important they are to kids,” Goodwin said. “They need to be role models.”
Project One Four, a David Price foundation, donated clothes and school supplies to Barfield Elementary where Goodwin serves as principal.
School counselor Marylyn Caperton said the clothes will be given to children who are in need of daily wear for school. The supplies will be placed in a central location for teachers to use as needed.
The school system’s Charity Fund ran out of funds the first month of school, Caperton said. People can support the fund by donating to the United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties.
Bonnie Price, the pitcher’s father, said, “Everything we raise (for the foundation), we put back in the community.”
The pitcher’s mother, Debbie, said the foundation stocked Hobgood Elementary School’s uniform closet before school began this year. The foundation sponsors baseball and basketball teams. They hope to purchase several computers at Eagleville School.
Schools who have requests may contact the foundation at bonnie@project14.org.
David Price will sponsor another benefit in memory of one of his best friends at Blackman High School, Nathan Stephens, at University of Tennessee graduate student who died in 2007 after suffering a seizure while playing basketball.
Proceeds of the benefit will go to the Nathan Stephens Endowment Scholarship Fund, providing scholarships to four graduating seniors to attend college. The benefit earned $25,000 last year.
Debbie Price hopes to raise even more funds to make the scholarship “self-sustaining so it will be there forever.”
The event will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 at Smyrna Bowling Center. Tickets are $10 each.
Price will sign autographs from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. He will bowl from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. A silent auction will run from 10 a.m. to 2:50 p.m.
For ticket information, call 355-0501 or 478-0007.
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