Charles Dickinson  of Fennville, who is donating 1,156 new basketballs to Fennville grade school and middleschool students, hold his own battered basketball at his home.

"I'm glad I could do it," Dickinson said. "Some day I would have left money to the school. It's a fun way to give while I'm still alive."

When the basketballs arrived this month, Douglas Elementary had to store the 600 deflated basketballs.

"I think it's a great idea to give each young person a basketball. His generosity will generate some interest in basketball," Saugatuck Public Schools Superintendent Tom Nowak said.

Nowak plans on handing out the balls the second week school is in session.

"It's the idea behind it that's important," Nowak said. "It's a person saying that kids are important and I want to do something to help them."

Dickinson said in February when he donated the basketballs to Fennville that he wanted to give elementary students a chance to learn how fun the game was to play.

Dickinson is a 1949 graduate of Fennville High School, where he played basketball for a year and coached basketball and baseball. He also played basketball as a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan.

Dickinson has given away over 1,000 basketballs in the last five years, and this year he offered children a choice of either a football or a basketball, a school spokesman said.

Dickinson was the former owner of Dickinson's Hardware on Main Street. He said participation in sports gives children confidence and may ward off trouble in the future.

"I believe that if you get kids interested in sports early, it will help give them a sense of direction and of competition," Dickinson said after receiving the plaque. "The more they are having fun with sports, the less likely they will be to get in trouble."