Moments in Mentoring: The Celtics, Courtney Lee, and a Night to Remember

Josh and Justin before the Celtics gameThroughout the basketball season, the Mentor Match program receives ticket donations courtesy of the Boston Celtics’ Shamrock Dreams, a community program where Celtics season ticket holders can donate tickets to charitable organizations throughout the Boston area. Thanks to the help of the Massachusetts Mentoring Partnership, mentees and mentors involved in the Mentor Match program have been receiving free Celtics tickets from the Shamrock Dreams program for the past three seasons.

This past Saturday, one of our newest matches was treated to something extra special: free courtside tickets to the Boston Celtics game that night. They were so close to the action, the mentee even got to meet some of the Celtics.

Below you’ll find the full story of their experience, as conveyed to us in an email from Justin’s mentor. Thank you to the Boston Celtics, the Shamrock Dreams program, and the season ticket holders who donate their unused tickets for making memories like this possible!

I wanted to thank the Celtics organization and the individuals who donated the tickets for the Celtics game. Justin, whom I mentor, is a huge Celtics fan. His mother and I surprised him with the tickets Saturday night and he went nuts. Justin is a very outgoing kid and once we got to the game he didn’t hesitate to say hi to anyone he recognized. And he seemed to recognize everyone. He was talking to the mascot, the sportscasters, and even the players. It really amazed me how open everyone in the organization was to speaking with him.

With Lucky the mascot

On the way to our seats Justin saw Lucky the mascot and stopped to talk with him. Justin asked Lucky to stop by our section later in the game so he could talk to him. Lucky stopped by a couple times to talk to Justin about how the game was going. He was even nice enough to bring Justin a basketball. I was impressed how Lucky handled Justin’s request to chat as you can tell he is a very busy person.

Meeting Courtney LeeOnce we were in our seats Justin began to strike up a conversation with some of the players. He hit it off with Courtney Lee who actually invited him on the court to help him do his post game interview. There were a couple of other players that he spoke with as well. I cannot say enough about these players. It was really impressive to see how they interacted with Justin and it speaks volumes about the Celtics organization.

After the game, Justin was so excited about the night that he wanted to tell everyone about it. It took us a while to get to the car as he kept striking up a conversation with fans leaving the game. He would tell them about his night and they would give him high fives. When we got to my car he wanted to call everyone he knew to tell them about the night.

Saturday created memories Justin is probably never going to forget. It was a very special night which I feel lucky to have shared with him. Again, I cannot say enough about everyone in the Celtics organization and the individuals who donated the tickets. Thank you so much!

~ Josh (Justin’s mentor)

Check out Justin in the post-game interview with Courtney Lee

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