As Alex Accetta knocked on the door at a first-floor apartment, the wheelchair-bound gentleman that answered seemed to have his mood brightened instantly.
The Dallas Mavericks were delivering lunches for the Meals on Wheels program and Accetta had hats, water bottles and other goodies to pass around with the food.
Will Gough, the Mavericks’ vice president of finance, handed the grateful man a hot and a cold meal. Accetta, executive assistant to chief operating officer Matt Goodman, supplied the hat, and the expression on the recipient’s face was priceless.
It was a scene repeated numerous times by more than 130 Mavericks’ staffers on Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The Mavericks delivered 519 meals to home-bound seniors, ranging in age from 68 to 100.
And they delivered just as many smiles, too.
“The coolest thing was seeing the smile on their face not when we gave them the meals, but when Alex gave them the hat or the water bottle and their face lit up,” Gough said. “That was the coolest moment for me.”
Said Accetta: “They’re waiting on us to deliver the food, but then that extra added bonus – a little extra touch from the Mavs – was outside the norm for them.”
The Mavericks’ annual Day of Service for 2023 was spent assisting the Visiting Nurse Association’s Meals on Wheels program that provides 7,000 meals daily to those in need to help “Drive Hunger Away.”
It marks the tipoff of the Mavericks’ business year, with training camp for the basketball side of the organization less than three weeks away.
“It’s a human connection,” said Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall. “We’re so happy to do this on this day (Sept. 11). We’ve always said that we don’t just work here. We live here. And we want to help our city any way we can.
“It’s one of my favorite days. We kick off (our season) with a day of service, our thinking being that if we can serve together, we can work together and we can serve our clients, our fans, all of our stakeholders together. It’s about doing something together. And I love the fact that our annual day of service fell on today.”
Like all Americans old enough to remember, the Mavericks had emotional moments on Monday.
“What I like to do is reflect on the heroes, all of the heroes that served us on Sept. 11,” Marshall said. “Those in the air and those on the ground. And so we are blessed to have heroes among us. We have people who served us well 22 years ago. And we have people still serving us.
“Today, we’re the heroes. We get to make meals and go and serve today.”
It was a day that also had personal meaning for so many Mavericks.
Mark Followill, the television voice of the Mavericks for two decades, said he feels a special connection with Meals on Wheels.
“My mom, when she was alive, benefited from Meals on Wheels,” Followill said before heading out on a delivery run for 10 seniors. “She was older, she was legally blind, she lived by herself, she couldn’t drive, was on a fixed income and so to have an organization like Meals on Wheels really meant a lot to me. She was well into her 80s. She didn’t always want to cook for herself, so to have a nutritious meal delivered by people who care was important.
“And it gets down to the time, the interaction with people. She got to interact with people who, for a few minutes of her day, were different than her normal routine, which wasn’t much of anything. To get a chance to interact with people that cared about her well-being was very meaningful. It’s an organization I’ve always thought so highly of because they are doing wonderful work.”
Katherine Krause, the president and CEO of Visiting Nurse Association, said that drivers take care of delivering 4,800 of the 7,000 meals that are prepared and packaged daily. The rest of the meals go to homeless shelters, resource centers or other partners with VNA.
With the Mavericks’ work on Monday, it meant that VNA saved enough money on paid drivers to feed roughly 500 seniors for a week.
“Our mission is to help people age with dignity and independence in the home,” Krause said. “Every route you drive is one the VNA doesn’t have to pay for. This hopefully will be the best part of your week.”
And it was.
Katie Edwards, chief impact officer and president of the Mavs Foundation, said the day of service is one of the organization’s best and most rewarding days of the year.
“We get to come together as we tip off the new season to serve our community together,” Edwards said. “Such a special day to be able to see people directly and be able to deliver meals for VNA today. It was so special to meet individuals in our community and see them smile.”
It was also a good bonding experience for the organization. Staffers were put in teams of three people and given routes to deliver about 10 meals each.
Many staff members weren’t all that familiar with their co-workers before the event.
When it was over, they had new friends made through an uplifting experience.
When Gough and Accetta reached their final delivery location, they pulled up to the modest house as a man sat on the porch.
Just getting out of the car was reward enough. Gough and Accetta noticed the man’s street address on the curb. Alongside the numbers was a Mavericks’ logo emblazoned into the cement.
It was a reminder that not all MFFLs are season-ticket holders or even able to go to a single game.
“That,” Gough said, “was absolutely the best way to end it.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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