Cavs’ Evan Mobley takes local foster children, foster parents holiday shopping

CLEVELAND — Growing up, Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Evan Mobley’s mother, Nicol and father, Eric, were foster parents. Mobley grew up with two foster siblings. He knows firsthand what being a foster family entails. With the holidays upon us, Mobley made it a point to give back to local foster families.

On Thursday evening, Mobley hosted a group of foster families from Fostering Hope and National Youth Advocate Program for a holiday shopping spree at Target. The families gathered for food before hitting the aisles and loading their carts with toys, clothes and other necessities.

Each child was given $150 to spend on whatever they wanted. Mobley walked around the store with them, helping them pick out items, sharing laughs and giving some life advice to the young shoppers.

The evening was all about them having a good time.

“I just want them to have fun. They don’t always get to have fun like this.Some days are harder than others and so I just want to provide some fun, some time for them to experience my life and experience what we do out here and for them to get what they want for the holiday season,” Mobley said.

Before the shopping began, Mobley also gave the children duffle bags full of items like coloring books, hats and other gear.

It wasn’t just the foster children gifted items during Mobley’s event. With his parents there to support him, Evan also surprised the foster parents with $100 gift cards of their own.

“I think that was just a special surprise we wanted to grant them. They knew that the kids would get everything, but I feel like the parents, with them fostering kids and really taking care of kids that aren’t necessarily theirs, it really just shows what they bring to this world and we just wanted to provide them with something else as well and a little surprise to just add on to things,” Mobley said.

As Mobley interacted with the families during the Target shopping spree, it brought a sense of pride to his own parents—parents who know the needs that come with being a foster parent.

“We’re excited to share our life. We were foster parents at one time and also we had kids that had needs. We’re able to just come out here and just celebrate and have fun and help the kids and the community,” Eric said.

“We’re proud parents. We’re proud of him. It’s all about the young man that we want him to be so for him to want go and above and beyond and outside of what he does on the court and give back to his community—we want to raise great humans and so I feel like he’s on his way to striving to be the best that he can be,” Nicol added.

Thursday was Mobley’s first community event he hosted on his own. It won’t be the last. But it might be one of the most meaningful with the ties he has to foster families and the way he was able to connect with the local foster community during his holiday event.

“This is my first personal event so I really wanted to do it big and do a little Target run and provide for the families out here,” Mobley said.