When Angella and Danroy Henry’s son DJ Henry was a high school student, he began helping out teammates who didn’t have enough money for sports equipment and gear. At one point his father recalled his son asking him to purchase another pair of Cutter football gloves, an accessory which aids in catching balls.

“I kept saying, how are you going through them so quickly?,” Mr. Henry said, during a recent interview on the Island. “It turns out he was giving them to kids who couldn’t afford them . . . not in a braggadocious or ostentatious way, just in kind of a loving, quiet, I-have-your-back way.”

In 2010, when DJ was 20 years old, he was killed by police during an incident in New York. His parents were moved at the number of DJ’s friends who came to the funeral and recalled his generosity. Soon after, the family created the DJ Henry Dream Fund, which provides money for kids to participate in sports, camps and art programs regardless of socio-economic status. Since then the Dream Fund has provided nearly $1 million in support and has reached almost 10,000 families across Massachusetts.

This fall marks the first time the Henrys will help fund a program on the Vineyard — a new basketball program headquartered at the Martha’s Vineyard Boys and Girls Club, and the direct result of a fundraiser held this summer at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.

The Henrys raised their children on the mainland but now spend most of their time on the Vineyard at their home in Oak Bluffs.

“We have felt like we need to have more of the summer fundraising focused on benefiting the Island and Island children specifically,” Mr. Henry said. “The league is one of several things we are trying to get launched for Island children, especially in the winter.”

Other Island initiatives the Dream Fund is hoping to help get off the ground are a Futsal indoor soccer league, a wellness center focused on yoga and meditation, and an art program, Mr. Henry said.

“Hopefully by being here and people knowing we’re here we can help people who have the heart to do these kinds of things,” Mr. Henry said.

The basketball program will be run by Michael Daniel, founder and director of the Boat to the Basket Youth Showcase, a summer basketball tournament geared toward fighting the opioid epidemic.

While the Dream Fund traditionally focuses on kids from low income backgrounds, the co-ed basketball program is open to all Island students in fourth through eighth grade, free of charge.

The program is meant to aid the dearth of off-season youth programming brought about by the pandemic, Mr. Daniel said.

Dhakir Warren, executive director of the boys and girls club, said the Dream Fund and its mission is a natural fit.

“It’s another opportunity for youth to be meaningfully engaged through this activity throughout the winter months where we see many youth struggle for opportunities to be involved,” Mr. Warren told the Gazette in an interview this week.

The goal is to create an environment which supports the kids’ physical and cognitive development, Mr. Warren added. “It’s really improving those life and social skills, cognitive skills, their team building, resiliency.”

The program begins this weekend with a clinic on Saturday and additional clinics the following two Saturdays. The clinics will have two sessions, with fourth and fifth graders practicing from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and sixth through eighth graders from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The goal is to have four leagues, divided up by age, with eight teams per league.

League play is intended to start shortly after the holiday season and run through about mid-March, Mr. Daniel said.

“It’s totally free,” Mr. Henry said. “All the parents have to do is get them there.”

To sign up. For more information about the DJ Henry Dream Fund, visit djdreamfund.org.