VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The GreenBox Foundation, a Virginia Beach-based nonprofit co-founded by DaSean Webster and Darius James, has secured a $10,000 Creative Neighborhood Grant from the city of Virginia Beach to add an art piece to a basketball court in the College Park neighborhood.
For Webster, the project is personal.
"College Park means home," Webster said.
Webster and James started the organization after hosting a charity basketball tournament to help families impacted by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
"When we started the GreenBox Foundation it was really by accident. Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and the other co-founder Darius, his wife has family there, so to get like good there we started a charity basketball tournament," Webster said.
What began as disaster relief eventually grew into ongoing community outreach in Virginia Beach.
"We wanted to do something for our community," Webster said.
Since 2018, the group has hosted College Park Day events at Level Green Park, using basketball and community gatherings to bring neighbors together. Webster says the foundation is also working to shift how the neighborhood is perceived from the outside.
"Every time the news is out there it's always for something bad. So we wanted to change that narrative," Webster said.
"We try to do it through basketball by actually having a community day. Like a peace day. And give back," Webster said.
The $10,000 grant will fund an art installation on a basketball court in the College Park area. Webster says the goal is to create something that stands out, similar to upgrades already made at Level Green Park — improvements that longtime residents like Douglas Muir have already taken notice of.
"They have completely re did it. Looks fantastic from the street," Muir said.
Muir, who has lived in College Park for 30 years, says the neighborhood has its challenges but remains a place worth investing in.
"Yes we've had some crime, but that's every neighborhood," Muir said.
Webster is drawing inspiration from other high-profile court projects in the region.
"Virginia Beach doesn't really have like a prominent court. I seen what Pharrell did, I see what Seatack community did, but we want to do that also for something in our neighborhood," Webster said.
"The grant was for to do an art piece on the court," Webster said.
Webster has not yet announced which specific court in the neighborhood will receive the makeover and is waiting to hear from the city on when work can begin. He is also looking ahead to an upcoming College Park Day event, which he says will be another opportunity to give back to the community.
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