Photo Provided

Members of the Harlem Ambassadors basketball team play musical chairs with children in between quarters of last year’s game with the Lowcountry All-stars.

Photo Provided

A member of the Harlem Ambassadors basketball team goes up for a jam during a recent charity game.

The Harlem Ambassadors will bring their spectacular athletic skills and crowd-pleasing antics to North Charleston March 4.

The Summerville Oakbrook Breakfast Rotary Club is teaming up with the Harlem Ambassadors to bring an afternoon of basketball fun to the Fort Dorchester High School gym. High-flying slam-dunks, ball-handling tricks and comedy routines will all be part of the show, which is scheduled for 3 p.m.

“People should expect a younger version of the Harlem Globetrotters,” event chairman Frank Dreyer said. “It will be that same kind of family fun and the Ambassadors do a good job catering to children and getting them involved with the show.”

This marks the second consecutive year the Ambassadors have made the trip to take on the Lowcountry All-stars team recruited by the Rotary Club. Tickets are only $5 in advance so organizers are hoping to once again pack the gym for the show.

“We received a lot of positive response from last year’s event so we figured we should do it again,” Dreyer said. “We have put together a promising team of players that includes people from the Summerville Journal Scene, Fort Dorchester, Pinewood and the business community. Two quarters of the game will be all about fun, but there will also be some more serious basketball during the other quarters.”

Tickets can be purchased online at www.summervilleoakbrooktotary.org as well as at the Summerville YMCA offices at The Ponds and downtown. They will also be available at the door for $6 each.

The Rotary Club has sponsorship packages available ranging from $250 to $5,000 that offer companies promotional recognition and include perks such as group tickets for the event. However, the deadline for sponsors to be included in certain promotional material is fast approaching.

Dreyer says money raised through both sponsorships and tickets will be put to good use.

“This is our club’s major fundraiser of the year,” he said. “We will use it mostly to support District Two students through our various programs.”

Each year the club makes donations to help provide scholarships for high school students, eyeglasses for students who can’t afford them, dictionaries to third-grade students, awards for high school athletes and Summerville YMCA summer camp programs. On an international level the club supports campaigns to eradicate Polio and worldwide clean water projects.

The highly acclaimed Harlem Ambassadors have their own unique brand of Harlem-style basketball that delivers a positive message for kids wherever the Ambassadors play. The Ambassadors have worked extensively with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters and American Red Cross as well as Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs in communities throughout the U.S., and perform more than 200 shows a year.

Dreyer says members of the group will make themselves available to sign autographs and the event will include a raffle for a game ball signed by the players.

The Lowcountry All-stars team is comprised of a mixture of former athletes and community leaders, some who want to test their mettle against the Ambassadors and others who just want to suit up for a good cause.

For more information, visit the club’s website or contact Dreyer at 697-0963 or Barbara Ruddock at 873-4911.

Contact Roger Lee @ 873-9424 ext. 213 or rlee@journalscene.com.

Journalscene.com ® is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Journalscene.com ® does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Journalscene.com ®. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website.

Users can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends' recent posts, add an avatar that fits their personality, and more. If you have posted here before you'll need to sign up again, or if you've never posted before, start now by reading our terms and conditions, and then signing up below!

• Santee Cooper announces 2012 refunding bond sale
• Santee Cooper announces organizational changes in operation and finance departments
• Santee Cooper employees pitch in on Day of Caring
• Aerial herbicide treatment on lakes under way
• Santee Cooper Board Authorizes Rate Study
• Santee Cooper announces refunding bond sale
• Santee Cooper, Florida Municipal Power Agency enter into letter of intent for share of planned V.C. Summer Station units
• Santee Cooper, Duke Energy Carolinas enter into letter of intent for share of planned V.C. Summer Station units 2 and 3