A Lifetime Around Young People
For Jim Schafer, giving back didn’t begin with the creation of a foundation. It began much earlier, through a lifetime spent around young people, classrooms, basketball courts and communities where relationships often mattered every bit as much as wins and losses. Jim built his professional life around teaching and coaching, but the common thread was always the people he encountered along the way. His approach centered on building trust, helping young people understand why something mattered and creating relationships that extended beyond a classroom, a basketball season or a final score. Those experiences ultimately helped shape the philosophy behind the Jim Knute Schafer Foundation and its commitment to finding meaningful ways to help others.
Basketball Was There From the Beginning
Basketball has been part of Jim’s life for as long as he can remember. His father, Jim Knute Schafer, built a highly successful coaching career at Atlantic Cape Community College, and Jim grew up around his father’s teams, traveling on the team bus, sitting on the bench and watching film at an age when most kids were simply learning the game. Those experiences gave him an early education in basketball, but they also showed him what coaches, teachers and mentors could mean in the lives of young people. Jim would eventually carry those lessons into his own career as a teacher and coach, developing a deep understanding of the game while never losing sight of the relationships that made sports meaningful in the first place.
Finding a Basketball Family in Atlantic City
That combination of basketball, teaching and relationships eventually became deeply connected to Atlantic City. Jim became part of a basketball community where the game occupies a special place in the city’s identity and where players, coaches, families and supporters form relationships that can last for decades. His coaching journey included remarkable championship seasons, but the lasting significance went well beyond trophies. The players became family, fellow coaches became lifelong friends and basketball became another way to teach, mentor and connect with young people. Those relationships remain an important part of Jim’s life today and help explain why basketball continues to be such a strong part of the Foundation’s identity.
The Jim Knute Schafer Foundation Turns Relationships Into Action
The Jim Knute Schafer Founation carries that spirit forward through a simple idea: when there is an opportunity to help someone, find a way to help. Over time, that has meant supporting young athletes and youth sports organizations, helping with equipment and travel expenses, supporting community programs and stepping in when families or individuals have faced difficult circumstances. Sometimes the need is connected to athletics and sometimes it has nothing to do with sports at all. The Foundation’s mission isn’t limited to one team, one school, one sport or even one city. It is about recognizing situations where some support can make a meaningful difference and doing what is possible to provide it.
What “Giving Back to Our Kids” Really Means
“Giving Back to Our Kids” is more than a slogan attached to the Foundation’s logo. It reflects a lifetime of working with young people and an understanding that opportunity can change someone’s direction. A young athlete may need equipment or help getting to a tournament. A youth organization may need support to give more kids the chance to participate. A family may suddenly find itself facing circumstances it never expected. The situations can be very different, but the underlying idea remains the same: sometimes encouragement, assistance or simply having someone willing to step forward at the right moment can have an impact far greater than the size of the gesture itself.
More Than a Game
Basketball will always be an important part of the Schafer story and an important part of the Foundation’s identity, but basketball was never really the end of the story. The game became a vehicle for teaching, building trust, developing relationships and helping young people discover what they might be capable of accomplishing. The lessons learned through sports can extend far beyond the court, and the relationships created there can continue long after the final buzzer. That same philosophy now sits at the center of the Foundation’s work: create opportunities, remove barriers where possible and use the relationships built over a lifetime to make a positive difference for others.
Creating the Next Opportunity
The Jim Knute Schafer Foundation continues to grow one relationship and one opportunity at a time, and there are many more stories still to be told. Some will involve basketball players, teams and coaches. Others will involve families, community organizations or individuals whose needs have nothing to do with athletics. What connects all of them is the belief that making a difference doesn’t always require something enormous. Sometimes it begins simply by recognizing an opportunity to help and choosing to act. Giving Back to Our Kids isn’t just a slogan. It’s what we do.