Community is a big part of the New York Liberty’s mission. And on a rainy Saturday, we got to see it in action.
When you do right by people, they take notice. It’s the quiet moments when you can build community, be there for others, and make a positive difference. It’s those moments that last and create wonderful, long lasting relationships. And on a rainy Manhattan Saturday, we saw that community come together.
The New York Liberty have been partnering with Wellfare for the past several years. Wellfare works to provide healthy and nutritious foods for people across the five boroughs. Around Thanksgiving time, Wellfare teamed up with the Brooklyn Nets to hand out food for the holidays in the Marcy Houses. This time, they held their first event at the Fulton Houses in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Even through the raindrops, Wellfare, the Liberty, and the Hospital for Special Surgery were able to provide food for hundreds of people that stopped by and visited the Houses.
Food insecurity continues to be a problem in New York City. New Yorkers young and old have felt the sting of budget cuts and a decrease in the availability of services that can assist in a time of need. The circumstances in the city are adversarial, and it takes a lot of work to be able to overcome them. Wellfare has been able to make an impact, and they’ve built strong partnerships along the way:
“For us, it’s being independent and having these direct relationships with these incredible companies, these incredible food brands, building our own Volunteer Corps, working directly with the communities that we want to serve,” Cole Riley, CEO of Wellfare said.
“When all these external factors are loud, disruptive, and divisive and aren’t necessarily working as seamlessly as they should be, we’re over here blazing our own path, being able to deliver impact when we want to on our terms. So that’s been the case for the past four years, and it’s going to be the case forever. We love being on our own and we love delivering impact on our own as much as possible.”
Wellfare got a big assist from one of the Liberty’s very best.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton joined the event and was handing out Better Boxes to the community. Throughout her time at the Fulton Houses, people came up to greet and spend time with the Liberty All Star as she handed out boxes, packed the boxes into shopping carts, and brought some sunshine on a rainy day. Laney-Hamilton has been a fan favorite since joining the Liberty back in 2021, and she’s been able to strengthen her bond with New York since then.
“Ever since I was little, community was something that my mother instilled in me,” Laney-Hamilton said. “So to be able to be here today, giving out boxes and not just boxes with anything in them, you know? Healthy alternatives to a lot of the snacks that I grew up eating or that are more accessible, it’s really important. It’s really important and I’m just thankful that I was chosen to be here. I’m thankful that we have people who have donated these different things to make a great impact in the community.”
The event with Wellfare also ties into Laney-Hamilton’s past and possible future:
“They provide the resources. It’s not always easily accessible, and that’s something that I’ve understood, especially from the areas that I’ve grown up in. It’s part of the reason why I want to do what I want to do after basketball. And so seeing this, this is great and understanding that there are partners, are people out there that are willing to help to make a difference in the community. It goes a long way.”
The work and support Laney-Hamilton provided was noticed and appreciated by her colleagues as well:
“It’s incredible for us to be able to bring Betnijah out here to help, first of all, just bring awareness to the program certainly, but also to actually lend a hand,” Riley said. “We need more hands passing out these boxes. You can see today we distributed close to $100,000 worth of groceries and we needed everyone helping, and Betnijah was right there on the front lines for the past hour, helping us distribute these boxes. It’s an incredible partnership with the Liberty awareness wise, these volunteer projects, we and look forward to continuing it.”
Health and advocacy
Health is multifaceted. What you eat and your activity level can shape and define your health. For a lot of New Yorkers, the stores close to home don’t offer healthy options that you can afford. High prices have wreaked havoc on people’s budgets and have led people to turn to cheaper, less healthy alternatives. If you’re able to get the right, healthy food into your system, it’ll help make your physical activity more fruitful and productive.
“You need the right fuel to get you going so that you can perform at your best, and that’s something that I’ve learned over the years. Growing up, I was like “Ok, McDonald’s, Arizona iced tea, honey buns, Oreos!” All those different kinds of things were my diet until I realized that didn’t help me be able to go out and perform to the best of my ability. Sitting down with nutritionists, I understood that nutrition was very valuable in the way that you’re able to go out and perform.
It’s not just the practice that you put in and the work that you do on the court, but just also the work that you do off the floor as well. So I know how important diet and everything is now. So it’s great to be able to extend this knowledge, extend these products and resources to the community.”
Joining the Liberty and Wellfare to assist on the health front were the Hospital for Special Surgery. HSS staffers were there to check people’s blood pressure, provide yoga mats, and handed out guides on how to make the most out of your Medicaid coverage. It was a diverse crowd and Wellfare/HSS had staffers who spoke multiple languages there to provide guidance and assistance to community members
Another, sometimes underrated, part of health is where you live. From where you actually live to the policies of the state you live in, external forces can dictate your health and even your access to health. Thousands of miles from New York, we saw what happens when health
Across the United States, reproductive rights have been under constant attack. Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022, states have made access to healthcare more difficult and treacherous for women. The latest instance came from the home of the Phoenix Mercury. In early April, the Arizona Supreme Court turned the clock back to 1864 by allowing a law that effectively bans all abortions back to be implemented.
Early in April, the WNBA announced a multiyear partnership with Opill. Opill is a daily birth control pill that is available over-the-counter and doesn’t require a prescription from a medical provider. For people in areas where there’s a shortage of doctors and limited access to reproductive healthcare, Opill is crucial and can serve as some sort of relief in a great time of need. It doesn’t solve all of the problems surrounding access to reproductive healthcare, but it’s a great step in the right direction:
“I think that’s the thing with anything that you’re doing when you’re trying to make progress, is just kind of taking it one step at a time,” Laney-Hamilton said. “And this is that one step at a time. It might not fix everything, but it’s definitely part of the solution and not part of the problem. So it’s helping the problem even though it might not fix everything. This is the first step to something big, to where women don’t have those same rights everywhere, but they have something that can help with that…”
The Liberty and WNBA have made reproductive rights a big part of their mission. The team has partnered with Callen Lorde and won them $25,500 during the Commissioner’s Cup. For Laney-Hamilton and the Liberty, helping people feel good on the court and giving back to the community is a point of pride:
“In life, no matter who you are, what you are, what you do or anything like that, I think that everybody should have the right to basic needs and healthcare is a basic need. And so, the fact that the league and teams are partnering with different people who understand that and want to bring those resources to communities [and] especially underserved communities, it really goes a long way. And again, it might not fix everything, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
As more people become familiar with the WNBA and its awesome players, they will get to meet a group of women that work hard on the court and advocate for various communities off the court. At its best, sports is a welcoming environment where everyone gets to play and take part in activities together. That communal aspect is something we should continue aspiring towards, and events like these help with that.
Back in action
Liberty SZN is approaching! The Liberty were tantalizingly close to capturing their first championship last year, but fell a bit short. The squad got to work in free agency and added some more reinforcements in this past offseason as they try to build on a great 2023. The team kept the core intact as they re-signed Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones in free agency. With more time together, the starting five can continue to gel and gain experience that will help come playoff time:
“It takes time to learn people and we did all of that, made it to a final series, and that wasn’t even a year,” Laney-Hamilton said. “We weren’t all on the court as a core until the first game pretty much. So for us to do all of that within that short span and then know what we’re coming back into, and then knowing each other now better than we did before, I think that our potential, our ceiling is really high.”
As we draw closer to the beginning of the regular season, you can sense the excitement in the air. The team is in a great place, the roster is coming together nicely, and you know fans will be ready to make Barclays the best home court in the league. Off the court, the team continues to give back and make and make New York home. It’s always wonderful to see the home team build community on and off the court. It’s something the Liberty take to heart and it reflects in everything they do.