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Jones donates shoes, backboards to Boys and Girls Clubs in Detroit

Posted at 6:27 PM, May 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-01 18:27:39-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — Marvin Jones Jr. knows what it's like to spend days in youth clubs as a kid.

So when the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Michigan needed some help, he was eager and ready to go.

"I always love doing stuff like this, it just brings back a lot of memories," Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. said.

Alongside United Healthcare and Dream Builders, Jones presented 150 pairs of new shoes to the kids, as well as ordering six new backboards that will update the most popular place at these save haven hangouts, the gym.

"The gym is the most used room in both of our clubs, so it's going to impact hundreds of kids who can come into the gym and they're going to be so excited to have backboards that work," executive director of innovation and engagement Courtnie Squirewell said.

Jones Jr. held a dance off with some of the kids, and offered a smile for all of them as he passed them their new pair of kicks. It's moments like these, much bigger than football, that he hopes resonate with these kids.

"You see a lot of stories where a certain somebody impacted the life of a child and I've carried that throughout my adulthood and I do think about that, that will be something cool when I'm over here with my cane and they say something like that," Jones Jr. added.