Photo by Skip Lawrence Donovan Hanes displays some of the goods donated to the Goodwill during the basketball tournament held at Frederick Community College over the weekend.

"We feel good playing for a good cause," Frederick Community College women's basketball team forward Josie Hildebrand said, minutes before taking to the court Sunday against West Virginia's Potomac State College.

The tournament, a joint project between Goodwill and FCC, is designed to increase interest in the local team's games while serving Goodwill's mission of creating hope, jobs and futures in the community through material donations brought to the games, Goodwill's marketing director Elissa Gross said.

"It's definitely a worthwhile thing to do to support Goodwill but it's also always a good experience for these girls to go out of state and play other teams," said Julia Serebryanskaya, assistant coach for New York's Technical Career Institute. "Some of these girls are just out of high school and this is the beginning of their college basketball career."

Spectators were expected to bring donations to the games but several individuals, including Matt and Donna Humphrey of Frederick , did not know that.

"We didn't know that Goodwill was a part of the tournament until last night," Donna Humphrey said. "But we held a yard sale last week and donated what was left to Goodwill."

The Humphreys were on hand to cheer their daughter, a member of the FCC squad.

The Friday through Sunday tournament did not yield as many donations as organizers would have liked, Gross said.

"We realize this is the first weekend of games. Others will be planned," Gross said. "But the public should know that Goodwill needs donations because this is our busiest time of the year."

People can drop off donations at any First United Bank and Trust and get a free safety deposit box or a visa coupon book, Gross said.

Also participating in the tournament was Delaware Community & Technical College. Three days of games culminated in a championship game on Sunday.

"We are so excited that Goodwill and FCC basketball are working together to promote their mutual interests in community involvement," said Barry Diamondstone, Goodwill board chairman and FCC basketball assistant coach.

Goodwill serves Frederick and Carroll counties with a variety of job readiness programs and services, including computer training and mentoring, job coaching and placement, Wheels-to-Work vehicles for eligible applicants, services for developmentally-disabled clients, certificates for emergency needs and the Maryland food stamp program.

Revenues from Goodwill's five retail stores support these programs and train clients to work in the retail operations.

For information about Goodwill's programs and services, call 301-662-0622 or check out www.gimv.org; about the tournament, contact Jan Marcus, FCC sports information director at 240-629-7809; e-mail, jmarcus@Frederick .edu