More than 50 Lower Merion basketball alumni returned for the first-ever Jimmy Brown Alumni Classic, benefiting Cruisin’ Not Boozin’. The event featured a spirited game between an alumni squad and a team of current seniors at Lower Merion’s historic Downs Gymnasium. Nearly 300 friends and family members gathered to watch the game, which included a halftime dunk contest and on-court activities for kids.

 

The event, organized by Julie Wool (LMHS ’87) and current Lower Merion seniors David Ancona-Cole and Michael Block, raised nearly $1200 for Cruisin’ not Boozin’, an award-winning program sponsored by Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital that brings children, teenagers and young adults face to face with the potentially devastating consequences of impaired driving. The program's peer-to-peer approach, featuring testimony by survivors who have received life-changing brain and spinal cord injuries, has proven effective in changing young people's attitudes about driving impaired.

 

The honoree of the evening was former Lower Merion basketball star Jimmy Brown ’87, who along with parents Kaye and Jim have gone school to school, sharing their personal experiences in conjunction with Cruisin' Not Boozin' and giving kids a strong message about being behind the wheel under the influence. Jimmy was joined at the event by a number of former teammates from the classes of ’87 and ‘88, including Stephen Spivak, Scott Young, Ernest Pendelton, Andy Davis, Michael Green, Randy Byrd, Winnie Horshaw, Kenny Brown, Brett Weinroth and Michael Siegel.