Our founders, Isaiah Thomas and Chris Woods, are Philadelphia natives and servant leaders who met and forged a lifelong friendship while playing basketball as youths.  Even after graduating from high school and going off to college, they returned home during breaks and over the summer to play basketball and serve as mentors and coaches to younger athletes.  As they embarked upon professional careers, they realized the importance that participation in organized sports played in their development of personal discipline, access to mentorship and role models, and academic achievement.  

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As involved community members, Thomas and Woods saw that parents and kids both struggled to find affordable, safe activities, both during the summer and throughout the year.  To ensure other youth had access to opportunities like they did, the two launched their annual week-long basketball camp in 2012.  In 2015, they founded The Thomas & Woods Foundation to expand this impact.

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