In the latest donation by a member of the Nets family, Kyrie Irving along with Nike has donated 17 pallets of food and 50,000 N95 maskts to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe that will be distributed across a wide expanse of North and South Dakota.
Irving’s late mother, Elizabeth Ann Larson, was a member of the tribe and lived on the reservation until her adoption at a young age. Irving and his sister, model Asia Irving, traveled to the reservation in August 2018 , when they were welcomed into the tribe and given Lakota names. (Irving was given the Lakota name Little Mountain.)
According to local news reports, pallets and masks arrived in two tractor trailers.
“We would like to say Wopila Tanka (thank you) to our relative Kyrie Irving for giving back in such a trying time,” the tribe said in a post on its Twitter page.
Wopila Tanka to @KyrieIrving for the food donation to Standing Rock Reservation. We appreciate your generosity during such a time.
— Standing Rock Sioux (@StandingRockST) May 7, 2020
Also thank you to Red Phoenix Ent for the assistance on the expected 3000 N95 mask delivery #wopila
https://t.co/GHnWZTpBKx
“There’s not a lot of people who would just go out of there way to donate to people. With us at Standing Rock, we’ve been grateful because a lot of people are reaching out and wanting to help in any way they can and it’s just,” said Shauna Long, internal affairs director for the tribe.
“It’s honestly. It leaves you a little speechless because you realize that people outside of here care about our people just as passionately as we do and that’s awesome,”
On March 23, his 28th birthday, Irving announced that he’s donating $323,000 to Feeding America, with Lineage Logistics matching up to $200,000 in donations as well amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Locally, Irving partnered with City Harvest and donated 250,000 meals across the New York area. Irving announced he is creating the Share-A-Meal campaign in partnership with those organizations “to help marginalized communities get the food sources they require.”
Other Nets players have donated to charities both close to home and overseas.
Two days ago, Sabrina Ionescu, the New York Liberty’s overall No. 1 draft pick and another Nike athlete, teamed with the company to send 15,000 Air Zoom Pulse shoes to New York health care workers.
In April, Dzanan Musa supplied computers and other operational support to a local hospital in his hometown of Bihac in Bosnia to assist doctors during the pandemic.
- NBA player donates food, masks to Standing Rock - Nikiya Carrero - KXNet