D-Wade's Buzzer Beater Saves Library
Chicago library saved by native son not named Obama
By TODD WRIGHT
Updated 4:46 AM EDT, Fri, Sep 11, 2009
Heat fans are used to Dwyane Wade's last-second heroics on the basketball court, but the NBA star scored a different type of buzzer beater for his hometown library.
Just a month after the public library in Wade used as a kid in a suburb near Chicago announced it would be shutting down, Wade swooped in like one of his signature drives to the basket with a $25,000 check to keep the doors open.
“When you think about the community, it’s a place where kids can go and have an opportunity to learn more and have more access to what’s going on in life and things of the past as well,” Wade told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday.
The small public library has been kept afloat by a federal grant, but a loss of revenue in the small library seemed destined to force the closure of the library, located in a low-income area. For many youths in the community, it is the only library they can get to.
The staff even made a public plea to another of Chicago's native sons, President Barack Obama, after signs the library would not making it through August.
They didn't hear back from Obama, who might have been a little busy. But D-Wade was listening.
Robbins library director Pricilla Coatney calls Wade's intention exciting and Wade presented the check to the library staff in person as part of Chicago's version of Summer Groove.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Philadelphia
First Published: Sep 10, 2009 3:15 PM EDT on NBC Miami
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