Shawn Nowlin shawn.nowlin@ourvalley.org
Photos by Shawn Nowlin
Roy Stanley was known for his warm personality and enthusiasm regarding all things sports related. For over 30 years, he was a fixture on WDBJ-7 covering everything from tennis to hockey. In 2002, at the age of 53, Stanley lost his battle to cancer.
Friends, family and community residents continue to keep his memory alive by hosting an annual basketball fundraiser. Now in its 11th year, the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout happened inside the Roanoke College Cregger Center on January 4.
Paul Dotson, the current President for the Kiwanis Club of Salem, arrived around 9:15 a.m. He, along with several other club members, handled ticket transactions, answered questions and directed teams to where they needed to be until the event concluded around 9 p.m.
Roughly 100 athletes participated in Saturday’s fundraiser. Six games, featuring two high schools from North Carolina, were on the ticket this year: Liberty Christian vs. Roanoke Catholic (girls), Carlisle vs. William Fleming, Amherst County vs. Cave Spring (girls), George Washington Danville vs. Olympic High and Greensboro Day vs. William Fleming (girls). The final game featured the Virginia Vets competing against the Roanoke Rising Stars.
“The Kiwanis Club of Salem is dedicated to assisting children and our local community children’s programs,” said Dotson. “National Kiwanis speaks to the motto ‘Serving the children of the world.’ Our local statement is ‘Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers, dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.’”
Liberty Christian won by 21 points, 49 – 28, without making a single foul shot. In addition to grabbing 18 offensive rebounds, Fleming forced Carlisle into 19 turnovers. Junior Donovan St. Juste led the Colonels to a 68 – 61 victory with 22 points. Connecting on all 20 of their free throws propelled Cave Spring to a 58 – 39 victory. Olympic High forced GW Danville into 21 turnovers en route to a 55 – 44 win. Greensboro Day was able to defeat the Lady Colonels 37 -33 in large part because their opponents shot just 29.7 percent for the entire game.
In addition to the action on the court, some financial donations and contributions were scored too.
“Our two main fundraisers are the Roy Stanley Memorial Shoot Out and the Challenger Little League Golf Tournament which takes place in April,” Susan Mini, a member of the Board of Directors, said. “We are involved in many community programs and events such as the Salem Christmas Parade, the Salem Easter Egg Hunt, Snack Buddies for the Salem Elementary Schools and the Pig Robertson Fishing Rodeo among numerous others.”
The Kiwanis Club of Salem is currently looking for new members to help carry out their mission. Interested individuals can attend a lunch meeting every Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. at the Salem Civic Center or visit https://salemvakiwanis.com/community /for more information.
