Boys & Girls Club gym gets March Madness renovation

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — As the Final Four tips off this weekend, kids at an Indianapolis Boys & Girls Club are getting a Final Four experience all their own.

As part of the NCAA Legacy Project through Indiana Sports Corp, the kids at the LeGore Unit of the Boys & Girls Club got a brand new gym that looks like it was made for the pros just in time for the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

The project replaced rims, flooring and scoreboards, bringing the gym out of the previous century.

“It was very dated. This gym was built in 1991 and it hadn’t been renovated since. The ceiling was blue, the walls had not been painted, the backboards and rims were from 1991,” Kim Dehoney-Barnett, Boys & Girls Club unit director, said.

The renovation took about a month to complete. It is just what the kids at the LeGore Unit needed.

“Our kids love basketball,” Dehoney-Barnett said. “Just to have something new and sparkly especially for our kids, it is a big deal.”

Kingston Young, 8, said the new gym is much better than the old one. He also said he liked “all the new basketball things.”

A major feature in the gym is the giant colorful mural that welcomes you as you walk in.

“I think it is very representative of what we wanted for our gym especially for this renovation,” Dehoney-Barnett said.

This specific location hosts two different basketball leagues and houses a basketball program, not to mention the before and after school programs they host.

“Every kid that comes to the facility uses our gym,” Dehoney-Barnett said.

For the kids that have been watching the tournament from home, it is special to see the same logo from their screen on their home court.

Sophia Barnett, 8, said it was “really exciting” to play on a fancy court like the college players do.

In addition to the renovated gym, the legacy project also refurbished part of the library and donated nearly 75 backpacks filled with school supplies.