P.O. Box 651
Mount Savage, MD 21545
P.O. Box 651
Mount Savage, MD 21545
Spartans heading to Philadelphia to make contribution to Shriners children's hospital
Girls basketball team has raised funds, shopped for toys
By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
CUMBERLAND, Dec. 22 -- Ashley Turnbull was three and a half years old when she spent a week in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Even though she can't recall that time specifically, she knows it wasn't fun to be in a hospital over a holiday.
Now a senior on the Bishop Walsh Spartans girls varsity basketball team, Turnbull and her teammates are helping spread some Christmas cheer. Twelve players, coaches and parents will arrive in Philadelphia on Dec. 28 for the two-day Springside School Philadelphia Tournament.
In between two basketball games, Bishop Walsh will pay a visit to Shriner's Hospital for Children and donate baked goods, toys and gift cards for the young children who are patients.
Kathy Turnbull, Ashley's mother, said visits and cheer from strangers made their week-long stay tolerable.
"People did the same thing for us," Turnbull said. "it just makes it a little bit nicer."
Bishop Walsh School is donating a portion of its gate receipts to help the team buy supplies to bake treats for the children. Money also has been raised to help buy toys, especially board games, and gift cards so some of the children can do their own shopping.
Abbie Matthews, who serves as the Spartans' co-captain with Turnbull, said it's a good way to remind oneself that giving can feel even better than receiving.
"I think, on Christmas, we're so worried about what we get," Matthews said.
This time, she's prepared for "an eye-opening experience" that could truly change for the better an otherwise dismal and scary ordeal.
Matthews said she has some experience in helping to cheer others up during the holiday season. She visited with several residents while her grandmother was in a nursing home. In addition, she and the Spartans visited to Lions Manor nursing home last season.
Ashley Turnbull, left, and Abbie Matthews are co-captains of the Bishop Walsh Spartans varsity basketball team. They and their teammates, coaches and parents will travel to Philadelphia next week for a two-day tournament and also pay a visit to Shriner's Hospital for Children to donate gifts, baked goods and gift cards.
Kathy Turnbull, left, conducts a meeting Wednesday with fellow Bishop Walsh girls basketball team parents about next week's trip to Philadelphia. Twelve players and their coaches and parents are making a donation of games, gift cards and baked goods to sick kids at Shriner's Hospital for Children.