Even with all the rain the 4th of July brought, it didn’t stop some young Kansas City, Kansas boys from selling fireworks.
This particular fireworks stand, located at 3909 Mission Rd. in KCK, is a little unique.
“It teaches you how to be intelligent and how to make money and help people,” Kyree Grier said.
“I've been learning how to organize the fireworks, set them out and talking to the customers, seeing if they need any help or anything,” Deylin Jones said.
These young boys are a part of Freedom Hoops.
“We are an urban basketball discipleship ministry where we use basketball to engage and disciple our urban youth to fight out fatherlessness, hopelessness, and under-resourcing,” Freedom Hoops Executive Director, Michael Loney said. “We want to see our kids impact our community through Christ. That's what we want to do through faith, recreation, education and employment.”
Loney says the group of young boys learn about working together both on and off the court.
“Our young men have increased their employability skills and soft skills which will continue to pay dividends for years to come,” Loney said.
“It helps you build like a brotherhood,” Grier said.
The fireworks help raise money for the Freedom Hoops program.
“We don't charge our kids to play. We try to provide a holistic approach to try and provide to help our kids out,” Loney said. “Our guys are learning what it takes to run a business. In a safe way to learn something. These are great learning opportunities.”
While there may have been some challenges along the way, at the end of the day, it’s a win: learning about responsibility, hard work and having fun.
“We were getting the customers in like waving them down and stuff and it was pretty hard but it was fun,” Jones said.
