Sixers forward Thaddeus Young was scheduled to host 200 kids from the Dryades YMCA and the New Orleans Recreation Department Basketball Skills Program for Monday’s game against the Hornets in New Orleans. He is also scheduled to meet with them after the game.

Born in New Orleans, Young became involved with the Dryades Y in the summer of 2005 when he visited the Y to see how construction was going after a fire destroyed the gym in 2000. Impressed, he asked if he could come back when the building was completed to shoot the first hoop as part of the grand reopening, but later that summer Hurricane Katrina intervened.

While the building survived, construction was set back. When Young returned to New Orleans during his rookie season, he was pleased to see the organization up and running and hosted 100 kids at the Sixers game in November of 2007.

Young has other strong connections to New Orleans including his father, Felton Young, who was an All-State basketball player at Holy Cross High School in the early 1970's; his sister, Talisha Young, a redshirt member of the University of New Orleans Privateers Women's Basketball team; and his second cousin Karen Carter Peterson, a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, representing the 93rd District since 1999 and serving as Speaker Pro Tempore since 2008. Ms. Peterson led the Obama campaign in Louisiana and was also instrumental in bringing the Hornets to New Orleans from Charlotte.