Darius Garland, who plays as the point guard for the LA Clippers and earns $42.1 million this year, is giving some of his money back to the town where he grew up. Darius Garland hails from Gary, Indiana, a place that was struggling after suffering a dangerous derecho.
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“Gary, Indiana is my hometown. It made me who I am. Right now, my hometown is hurting,” Garland said in a joint statement with Gary Mayor Eddie Melton. “That’s why today, my family and I are donating $100K to the Greater Gary Storm Recovery and Relief Fund at the Legacy Foundation to help address the most urgent needs of residents.”
This donation comes at a time when the needs are dire. A derecho storm and record floods hit Indiana on August 11, resulting in the death of eight people and leaving power outages affecting over 360,000 houses, with damages ranging from $5 billion.
Gary belongs to 21 counties approved for federal assistance, and its citizens have been suffering from the power outage problem for a longer time than others. About 374,500 NIPSCO consumers suffered outages for close to two weeks.
That prolonged blackout has already caused some political conflict. The mayor, Melton, termed the progress made in restoring electricity as not satisfactory enough, whereas the governor of Indiana, Mike Braun, has sought an investigation into the maintenance of power lines prior to the storm.
Garland’s contribution comes when the corporation has entered into a partnership with Lowe’s, which will provide both the building materials and voluntary labor that will aid in the clearance of debris and fixing up of homes that have been damaged in Gary.
More than 13,000 requests for help from the government have already been made, and this shows the extent of damage caused by the storm in the designated counties, such as Lake, Marion, Hamilton, and LaPorte.
As Garland makes efforts to help his hometown through his basketball off-court, his aim is to be healthy and ready to play during the upcoming season. When speaking to HoopsHype, Garland talked about the problems with his toes at the end of the season in Cleveland.
“It was very frustrating just because the season I had before, it was really really good,” Garland said. “So, I think we could have had a chance of making a run if I didn’t get hurt. So that was pretty frustrating. But now having a full summer, a full offseason, back to 100 percent.”
The health of Garland is crucial to the Clippers because he has just joined the team through a trade from Houston in February in exchange for James Harden. He made his debut in March and instantly created history as he became the first player in the history of the franchise to put up 40 points, 10 assists, and 7 three-pointers.
As reports suggest Kawhi Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors is all set, Garland is expected to be at the helm of the Clippers’ offense when the new season kicks off. However, his concern at this point is not about basketball but the larger community that helped shape him before his time in the NBA.