Girl Scouts from the Arizona-Cactus Pine Council were invited to Game 2 of the Phoenix Mercury’s WNBA Finals series hoping to catch a good one.
They left with a lot more. Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker used the big game to surprise the group with a $100,000 donation, the first of five gifts Booker is handing out this season as part of his Devin Booker Starting Five campaign.
Sweet surprise from @DevinBook
Book surprised Arizona Cactus-Pine Council Girl Scouts with a $100,000 donation.
First of five Valley nonprofits to benefit from Devin Booker Starting Five initiative this year. #ValleyProud
https://t.co/mFpkKREFBa pic.twitter.com/Jy1hzyj6Md
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) October 14, 2021
Before the game, the Girl Scouts were ushered into the team’s media area at Footprint Center, where a video of Booker announcing the gift played. Then, he popped in, in person.
The donation will help provide the group a bus that’s used to transport them to educational opportunities. The Girl Scouts did not have a bus due to vandalism and theft, according to a press release.
“I think this society is lacking inclusion when it comes to females as a whole,” Booker said in a team-produced video. “That’s been something I’m focused on since I’ve been here, supporting the Mercury and finding other ways to do it. I think this grant for the Girl Scouts is a step forward in that way.”
The Arizona-Cactus Pine Council scouts include more than 20,000 girls from communities covering 75,000 square miles in central and northern Arizona, including reservations and military installations.
“I was so excited because we have been working so hard for this granted and been keeping our fingers crossed, ” Girl Scouts Arizona-Cactus Pine Council deputy director Christina Spicer said in the video. “Now more than ever, being able to transport girls to and from programs to be able to access girl scouting is a huge need of ours.”
The 60-some Girl Scouts invited to the game also got to watch the Mercury play the Chicago Sky — and it was a good one.
Booker purchased a suite for them to watch the Mercury’s 91-86 overtime victory that tied their series up with the Sky, 1-1.