La Cañada High School seniors Dhilon and Jaidon Gupta on Aug. 12 put together a fundraiser called “Hoops to Help the Homeless,” combining their love for basketball and spreading the word of kindness.
The two held their event in partnership with The Good Karma Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization that serves the homeless population in Skid Row every Sunday with about 600 meals, water and other resources.
Community members came together at the LCHS gym early Saturday for the basketball charity event to make free throws and make a difference.
“People showed up, and we had over 20 people shoot free throws,” said Dhilon Gupta. “And as of now, we have $5,000 in donations, and we’re still expecting another $1,000 to come in.”
The brothers are not new to the fundraising game.
They hosted their first event during the pandemic to raise money for COVID relief in India.
In another basketball-themed event, they raised $8,000 and donated that to UNICEF, an organization that works with countries around the world to improve the lives of children.
After the brothers discovered The Good Karma L.A., they volunteered with the organization and started planning their event.
“We knew that we could help at least a portion of the world using a basketball event that we knew our community would stand behind support,” said Jaidon Gupta. “And in this time, we kind of aim toward homelessness because … we saw that as kind of something that needed more support.”
The brothers have been playing basketball all of their lives and know that La Cañada Flintridge shares the same passion with the sport.
“It’s a good way to bring the community together, and we know that that’s the most appealing way for people to come together and participate in an event,” said Jaidon Gupta.
Before the event, the two were at work trying to get businesses in LCF to support their event, and ended up having 10 sponsors and raising, “a couple of grand” from that.
Family members and friends would pledge to donate a certain amount of money for every free throw that they made at the event. One sharpshooter at the fundraiser made 55 free throws.
“We didn’t get as many shooters as we wanted to, but we’ve still reached our donation goal,” said Dhilon Gupta. “We were hoping to get around $5,000 to $6,000, and that’s exactly where we are at.”
Jaidon Gupta said it was eye-opening for people in LCF to learn that people live in such unfortunate times and situations.
“I think one of the big things for me was seeing what came out of this event, and the awareness about Skid Row and about some of the really densely populated areas of homelessness in Los Angeles,” said Jaidon Gupta. “In La Cañada, we live in a bubble, and it was cool to see how my bringing out Good Karma to a La Cañada school and let people kind of see something that they hadn’t seen before, especially the kids that haven’t really been able to experience all the things that happen outside of our town.”
Both members of The Good Karma L.A., Nasir Malik and Jeff McCollister were at the event along with many other volunteers. They both emphasized the need for donations to make sure they can continue their effort in helping the homeless community.
“We need resources desperately,” said Malik. “This is the thing that’s really important for us as we need resources to make sure that we can get food out to Skid Row.”
Other than offering food and water to the homeless community, they also provide resources that include, “dog and cat food, kid toys, tents, clothes, socks, underwear, care kits; whatever we have in the moment in addition to our baseline of hot meals and water bottles,” said McCollister.
The two mentioned that the organization tries to do events like this monthly to raise money, but this was the first time the organization teamed up with a high school.
“Anything that the unhoused community can use [will help],” said Malik. “Just get in touch with us. Go to our website, hit us up on Instagram and get involved.”
The organization is hard at work prepping for their Sunday distribution, by cooking the food and packaging it. They hope to one day operate from a food truck for easy access and timing.
The LCHS brothers don’t plan on stopping their fundraising efforts anytime soon and hope to inspire the younger generation to continue it.
“Based on the success of the events that we’ve had, we don’t see why this can’t be something we continue in the future,” said Jaidon Gupta. “It’d be great to get more high schoolers involved as we move on to college, and to get more basketball players in our community to join this, like people who are currently in middle school.”
To learn more about The Good Karma L.A., visit thegoodkarmala.org.
First published in the August 17 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
