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Mesa boy’s effort aims at hope
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Austin Gutwein put together a winning team. The Mesa 11-year-old blended basketball with a passion to improve the lives of children, resulting in Hoops of Hope.
About 90 local youngsters shot 1,000 free throws apiece Thursday at Central Christian Church’s gym in Mesa to coincide with World AIDS Day. Dan Gutwein, Austin’s father, expects the entire effort to rake in $25,000 for World Vision, a nonprofit organization that helps children affected by HIV and AIDS.
Their contribution will be enough to provide at least 100 African children with necessities such as food, clean drinking water, health care and shelter.
"We can’t figure out a cure for AIDS, but we can definitely do something for the kids who are orphaned by it,’’ said Austin, citing some inspiration. "It’s totally a God thing.’’
Austin launched 2,057 free throws last year to singlehandedly raise nearly $3,000 for the organization. With bigger goals in mind this time around, he wanted another 1,000 kids to join the cause.
Aside from local participants, the rest of Thursday’s free-throw shooters hailed from California, Georgia and Washington. Some of the shooters included entire schools that likely learned of Austin’s idea through World Vision, Dan Gutwein said.
Amid the sound of basketballs swishing through nets Thursday morning, Austin took a break from rebounding, tapped his dad’s arm and said quietly, "I’m going to go encourage everybody. I’ll be right back.’’
The gesture summed up Austin’s humble but determined attitude toward a project he has owned from the start. Gutwein and his wife, Denise, sponsored a pair of children from Uganda, with whom Austin and his sister, Brittany, 10, eventually became pen pals.
"For three months, he kept saying, ‘Dad, I want to do more,’ ’’ Dan Gutwein said about letting Austin run with the idea. "I didn’t know it would ever lead to this.’’
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