VIDEO, PHOTOS: Brick Basketball Teams Raise Funds For Student Needing Heart Transplant

BRICK, NJ — To some, the noise in yhe East Gym at Brick Township High School might have been annoying — basketballs bouncing relentlessly on the sparkling new gym floor, voices raised slightly to be heard above the rubbery boing of the balls hitting the floor.

To Brick Township boys basketball head coach Mike Gawronski, however, every bounce, every shot off the backboard, was a welcome sound: the sound of money being raised to help a family in need.

The Free Thr0ws for a Cure was raising funds to assist a Brick Township sophomore who's in need of a heart transplant. Jacob Basilotto, 16, was born with a congenital heart defect known as hypo-plastic left heart syndrome, also known as HLHS, Gawronski said. Jacob was on the heart transplant list but was recently moved to inactive status due to a change in his condition; he is being treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to help him get healthier so he can be put back onto the list, he said.

Gawronski said the fundraiser was sparked from a memory of doing something similar when he was a student at Brick on the basketball team. The Free Throws for a Cure event on Jan. 20 was the fourth year it's been held, he said. The first two years it was just the boys team, Gawronski said, but last year girls coach Kevin Stockhoff and his team joined the effort.

"The community is so generous," Gawronski said. The fundraiser has raised $10,000 in its first three years but he was hoping this year's fundraiser will exceed the $5,000 raised last year. As of Jan. 27, more than $3,000 had been donated and more donations were still coming in, Gawronski said.

Gawronski said the support of the school administration for the event was invaluable.

Lisa Basilotto, Jacob's mother, said by email that the efforts to help the family are overwhelming.

"We want to say how much the basketball team, their coach and the entire school community at BTHS made us feel," she said. "We were truly honored and happy that they thought enough of Jacob and our family to support us during this long journey. We were humbled by the number of people and students that were there."

"This act of kindness and friendship will NOT be forgotten," she wrote.

If you would like to make a donation, contact Gawronski at mgawronski@brickschools.org.

Take a look at videos and photos from the event below:

Photos by Karen Wall, Patch.com; first video by Karen Wall; second via Brick Township Schools