On a cold fall day in 2003, two kids from a small town in Clarkston Michigan were introduced to each other. They might have never met, if it weren’t for their love and passion for the game of basketball. Megan Goldberg would be the team manager, and Jenna Beno a player. Over the next few years, Megan and Jenna became best of friends. Despite going off to different colleges after high school, they still stayed in touch while away at school. While Megan continued her studies of education at school, Jenna had decided to join the Army after her first year of college. 

A few short years later, after Jenna had finished her basic training, she was re-assigned to be a mechanic with the 1st Infantry Division Ft. Riley, Kansas.  Her unit was deployed to Iraq in 2009. Shortly after Jenna and her unit arrived in Iraq, they were hit by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), also known as a roadside bomb. Jenna suffer many injuries from this bomb. The most serious injuries were to her vocal cords. She was immediately rushed to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C..  Jenna spent nearly three years there trying to recover.  During that time, a charity called Luke’s Wings helped fly Jenna’s mom, out to see her daughter.  In 2012, another charity helped out the Beno family by bringing Jenna home.  Shortly after being home, Jenna passed away.  She died October 12, 2012.

Megan was devastated.  Rather than dwell on Jenna passing away, she wanted to make a difference. She found comfort in searching for a way to help Jenna’s family, and other veterans in similar situations. As a way to support the charities that had just helped the Beno family, Megan leveraged the Clarkston girls basketball team to help and form “Hoops for the Troops.” When Megan first created this fundraising group, she wanted to raise funds for other charities. Initially, she just thought it was going to be a one time thing. Instead, it has turned into an annual basketball game event taking place in February.  The main reason for doing this fundraising event is to help the charities and the veterans. As a side benefit, the fundraising gives the Clarkston Varsity team a chance to act as ambassadors to the community.

For the first year of Hoops for the Troops fundraiser, all proceeds went to Luke’s Wings. This was the first charity that helped out the Beno family, when Jenna was injured. Luke’s Wings flew Jenna’s mom out to see her when she came back to the U.S. for more extensive surgery and recovery. Megan and the Beno family felt that it was very important that we give back to the charity that helped fly Jenna’s family to see her.  Luke’s Wings paid for all the airfare, ground transportation, and hotels when the Beno family went to go visit Jenna in the hospital.  During the first year of our fundraising event, Megan and I planned it the best we could. It ended up working out better than we thought. In the end, we ended up raising just over $5,000. All of the proceeds went to Luke’s Wings the following day. 

After Megan and I realized how successful the girls basketball team was, we decided that we were going to make Hoops for the Troops game, an annual fundraising event. The following year, Megan and I decided to start our fundraiser planning much earlier in the year. We started at the end of November. We were determined to top last years final of $5,000. Instead of relying only on Megan and I getting big money sponsors, we got the entire girls basketball teams involved. It made everything so much easier when planning the event and developing a budget for new posters and warm up shirts for us and the visiting team. With every girl being able to get at least one sponsor, and getting donations during the game, we topped our first year's goal by $3,000. We made $8,000! This year, we decided to give the money to a different charity that had helped the Beno family in bringing Jenna home. The charity was called Operation Second Chance. This charity helps out families in more than just medical ways.  They help families be able to afford to send their kids off to camps and sport events.

This year we are supporting new charity that both Mr. and Mrs. Beno are very involved with! It is called MBHV (Michigan Bikers Helping Veterans). The MBHV receives donated funds to distribute here in Michigan to provide assistance to deserving families of the fallen or wounded service personnel, or Veterans in critical financial need. Even though we have not had our game yet this year we are already raised over $6,000 from our different sponsors around Michigan. Many of our sponsors are our local businesses that have always helped out the Clarkston athletics programs.
Being able to help Megan Goldberg the past three years has truly been a life changing event. I have learned so much about these different charities and what they do to help wounded or fallen military personnel and their families. I love being apart of this fundraiser.  It truly has taught me the value of life and to be thankful for all the military personnel keeping our country safe. I am very sad that this is my senior year in high school. I will be going off to college in the next few months and will not be able to be as involved with this life changing event. No matter where I go, or what I do, Hoops for the Troops will always have a special place in my heart.