SPOKANE, Wash. — Thousands of people are in downtown Spokane for Hoopfest this weekend. Volunteers work behind the scenes, setting up courts, keeping score and feeding other volunteers.
The Laird family has volunteered since the second Hoopfest.
“I don’t request my birthday off, or holidays, or whatever. But Hoopfest, I have to have off,” said Jordan Laird.
Julie Laird, the mom of Jordan, originally started volunteering by helping pick up downtown. She saw that most volunteers don’t have time for lunch breaks.
“I’ve always been a volunteer, that’s just the way we were raised,” Julie said.
Naturally, she began packing lunches for volunteers, enlisting her family to help. A trickle effect took place.
“I’d get my friends involved, and we just roped all of our people in to come and help us,” Jordan Laird said.
The family previously packed sandwiches and snacks for volunteers, before switching over to ‘Lunchables’ for convenience. They’ve prepared 3,500 lunches this year. At their peak, they were churning out more than 5,000.
Sixteen family members, from grandparents to grandchildren, all chip in to help.
“It’s like a family reunion. Every year they all come back and they pack lunches together,” the family said.
The Lairds have also collected Hoopfest t-shirts over the years. They have shirts dating back to 1992.
The family encourages others to volunteer.
“If they want a better world and they want a better community to live in, they need to get involved. Because it’s events like this that make Spokane unique,” Jordan Laird said.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.