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Gainesville State School Voluteer Council Accepts $10,000 Donation

At Keller Williams Realty Company’s annual Family Reunion Convention in New Orleans, the company’s Mo Anderson Trust presented the Gainesville State School with a $10,000 donation to Gainesville Student Support Council to benefit the school’s basketball team. Accepting the donation on behalf of the Gainesville State School was Tornadoes basketball coach Henry Thomas.


At every annual reunion convention, Keller Williams hosts an “Inspirational Brunch”. At this year’s brunch, the now famous basketball game between the Gainesville team and the Waco Van Guard team was featured.


Earlier in the basketball season, the Van Guard basketball team had driven to Gainesville to play against the Tornadoes. Two Van Guard players, Ben and Hudson, noticed that there were no cheerleaders, banners, posters, or fans. They decided to make things different for the Gainesville youth when they came to Waco for the next game, and they did!


After the Tornadoes arrived and had their warm up, they were instructed to go back into the dressing room to wait until the game began. When they came back out, the entire gym was decorated in the Tornadoes colors of black and white. There were cheerleaders on the Gainesville side, banners and posters and the entire bleachers were filled with Gainesville fans.


In preparation for the Inspirational Brunch, a video was recorded of the interviews with Ben and Hudson. There was also a video made with Coach Henry Thomas and three of the Gainesville team members. Each youth explained what the Van Guard games mean to them and how they are inspired by knowing that others truly care for them.

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