The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that the charitable Warriors Community Foundation has organized a prize package to be auctioned, with the raised money going toward the son of a reverse mortgage borrower in danger of losing his family’s home in a foreclosure action.
The West Oakland, Calif. home has significant sentimental and symbolic value to the San Francisco-based NBA team the Golden State Warriors, and it’s for that reason that the foundation is stepping in to assist other fundraising efforts designed to help Lloyd Canamore retain the home, the foundation announced.
“Lloyd Canamore’s West Oakland home is a legendary landmark for Warriors fans everywhere,” the announcement reads. “Decorated top to bottom, inside and out, in blue and gold, Canamore’s passion for the Dubs started when he was a small child, encouraged by his mother who turned their family house into an expression of their loyalty for the Bay’s Team. Following the tragic passing of his mother last year, Lloyd is now in danger of losing the West Oakland home that has been in his family for 50 years, The Warriors House.”
To bolster existing fundraising efforts, the Warriors Community Foundation has organized a package which includes lunch with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, along with autographed memorabilia from the team. As of this publication, the auction has progressed from its starting bid of $100 and now sits at just over $6,000, with four days remaining.
This is on top of a GoFundMe effort organized by a neighbor of Canamore’s, which after receiving publicity from Warriors point guard Steph Curry has amassed over $260,000 from nearly 7,000 donations as of publication time.
58-year old Canamore has lived in the property at the center of the situation since he was a small child, and the house has since become a local landmark for Warriors fans in Oakland, Calif. since it has been painted in the team’s colors and flies team flags on its front facade. Canamore’s mother owned the home, and he previously said that a caretaker had “misled” her into taking out a reverse mortgage on it in 2005.
The story’s spread through the local community earlier this month reportedly caught the attention of Curry, who used his substantial following of nearly 31 million users on Instagram to promote the GoFundMe campaign designed to help Canamore pay the remaining loan balance of $350,000 to remain in the home.
“Momentum toward saving Canamore’s home really picked up after the Warriors guard recently posted to his Instagram Story about the GoFundMe account to keep Canamore in Oakland, and now the fundraiser has reached over two-thirds of [its] goal,” the auction announcement reads. “There is still a ways to go, but progress is being made and the Warriors All-Star Package Auction will certainly assist those efforts.”
The Warriors Community Foundation was established in 2012, with a primary mission to “improve educational outcomes among children in Alameda and San Francisco Counties,” according to its website.
Read the announcement of the auction.
