Penn State grad visits 30 NBA arenas in 30 days, raising $100K for Make-A-Wish

Before Justin Leusner even made it to middle school, he knew he wasn’t going to work a typical nine to five. He planned to go to college and graduate, which he did two years ago from Penn State, but his passion for content creation didn’t require a degree.

It was that passion that led him to raise $100,000 for Make-A-Wish last month as part of a challenge to travel to 30 NBA arenas in 30 days, documenting every step of the journey on his YouTube channel. The idea was born in 2022 when Leusner was watching YouTuber Ryan Trahan, who did a similar fundraiser for Feeding America.

“However, that was four years ago,” said Leusner, who now lives in State College. “So what happened in those four years?”

The Penn State graduate grew up in the Philadelphia area and, like many Philadelphians, fell in love with Philly sports. When he started YouTubing in fourth grade, he made videos about sports video games, such as Madden or 2K, and vlogged his trips to Philadelphia sports stadiums.

“Slowly but surely, after seven years of posting every single day from fourth grade until junior year in high school, [my parents] started to see the checks come in, and understand the business side of it,” Leusner said.

He brought his YouTube dreams to Penn State in 2021 while pursuing a degree in entrepreneurship, which he joked was a “fraudulent” study, and ended up spending his time making content and starting clubs.

One of the clubs was a new show on PSN TV, TDay Sports Live, which now exists separately from Leusner as 360 Sports.

To get funding, Leusner went to Happy Valley Launchbox’s startup week and pitched his startup Shark Tank-style. He got $35,000, “no equity, no debt,” to grow what was marketed as “Gen-Z’s ESPN.”

“Then I ended up realizing, this is not why I started YouTube,” Leusner said. “I started YouTube because I wanted to make videos.”

This realization pulled Leusner back to his earlier idea to cross America, stop at all the NBA arenas, and raise money for a cause he believed in. The team at Basketball Today, a rebrand from the media startup into a YouTube channel, saved up money for traveling and deemed Make-A-Wish a fitting foundation.

“There was alignment in the sense that, I don’t know if there’s another nonprofit that actually executes their cause at NBA games,” Leusner said. “We were able to witness multiple wishes get granted inside the games, and it integrated so well with the content.”

When Leusner reached out, Make-A-Wish set him and his team up with discounted flights and car rentals.

With the help of AI tools Claude and ChatGPT, the team at Basketball Today mapped out a route to hit all 30 NBA arenas though March. However, the infrequency of NBA games posed a challenge. Leusner had to bounce back and forth, city to city, with 8-10 hours’ worth of traveling in between games.

They documented each day and uploaded hours of clips to be edited in their minimal spare time.

“People think, ‘Oh, the video went up on time,’ as if everything was peaceful, and in reality, it’s a whole rat race internally — seven people all hands-on deck to get it done,” Leusner said.

Nonetheless, the team never missed an upload — 30 days, 30 videos. And at the end of March, the fundraiser reached its goal of $100,000, thanks to donations made by viewers and supporters of Leusner and Basketball Today. They held a sneak-peek premiere at UEC Theatres 12 in State College on March 30, for his final episode of the journey.

“It was unbelievable to see people rally,” Leusner said. “There were over 100 people I’ve never even met who donated out of the goodness of their hearts.”

Not only was it successful in accomplishing its fundraising goal, but Leusner also accomplished his own goal that he’d set four years prior. He also set a Guinness World Record, and the content skyrocketed viewing metrics on his YouTube channel.

“One of the missions that turned out to be part of the story was not only bringing awareness and money to Make-A-Wish, but I’m sick and tired of hearing people’s dreams, and they don’t do anything about it,” Leusner said. “If everyone just tried their dream now, not waiting until they’re older, everyone would be happier, and the world would be a better place.”

Leusner and his team at Basketball Today have future plans to do 30 MLB stadiums in 30 days, or a similar challenge for March Madness next year, with a similar fundraising goal in mind.