Pray and Play Thrift Store in Marmet, WV funds kids sports | Kanawha Valley

The thrift store’s mission is simple. The funds from every sale support the program’s leagues, uniforms and outreach efforts. The Coopers hope it will make the growing initiative sustainable while giving community members another way to take part. 

“Our program is called ‘Pray and Play’ for a reason,” Bill Cooper said. “We use the sports to get kids to come out. Then we pray, we mentor, we talk about life.”

For Bill Cooper, the work and the support of the community is a deep taproot into Marmet. His childhood there was marked by instability, with his mother struggling with addiction and his father, with alcoholism. 

He moved frequently, sometimes without a steady place to stay. 

“I bounced from anywhere from South Dakota to Florida,” he said. “I lived in a car some, stayed with friends, stayed with strangers. I was lost. Like a lost soul.”

At one point, he nearly quit school. But he had a neighbor in Marmet, Ruth Jacobs, who stepped in.

“I was going to drop out of school in probably ninth grade,” he recalled. “[Jacobs] took me in, and me and her son are still best friends. She put me through summer school, got me caught up and everything.”

Now, Bill Cooper said he sees Pray and Play as a way to offer the same stability to children that Jacobs once offered him.

Sports have always been Bill Cooper’s anchor. He started playing basketball after moving from Marmet to Charlotte, North Carolina, and his passion for the game continued into adulthood. Over the years, he said he’s coached countless teams. Today, he’s the assistant coach at DuPont Middle School and is Marmet’s recreation director.

Pray and Play began as a small basketball league in 2023. In less than two years, it has grown into a year-round initiative offering multiple sports, travel teams and community events that welcome children regardless of ability to pay.

“If I say we’re playing basketball and eating pizza, I get 40 kids in the gym,” he said with a laugh. “Before we play, we pray, and then the real learning starts.”

Charlene Cooper says sports are the bridge that allows the Coopers to mentor children on and off the court.

“It teaches teamwork, it builds confidence and it gives us a way to talk with them about bigger things,” she said.

The model is simple: prayer before and after every practice, open doors for any child who wants to join, and a focus on making children feel supported regardless of skill or circumstances.

“We don’t turn anybody down,” Bill Cooper said. “That’s the key.”

The Coopers’ path to this mission wasn’t straightforward. The couple married young, divorced under the strain of jobs, children and personal struggles, and eventually reunited — a turning point they both describe as faith-driven.

Charlene Cooper recalled being a single mom, battling postpartum depression and struggling to make ends meet. 

“I prayed to God to give me my life back,” she said. “The next day, Bill just showed up at my door. We’d been divorced a year — and it was not a nice divorce. But he came back. We got saved, got baptized, remarried in the church. That was 13 years ago, and we’ve been in church since.”

That experience of renewal, they said, is what inspired them to create a program where children could find hope and safe spaces.

Now, the Pray and Play program helps hundreds of children from all backgrounds each year, and its reach continues to grow.

The most recent basketball league had more than 200 participants. The flag football league included 100 kids, and the Challenger League for children with disabilities has grown from about 10-12 to more than 20 participants.

The Coopers have welcomed children from a wide area — including Montgomery, Hurricane and Elkview, and outside of the county — to take part in the program. With multiple sports and year-round activities, Pray and Play now serves several hundred children annually.

Pastor Mark Thomas, of Living Faith Church in Marmet, and the Coopers said they feel the need for the program is clear, as the program has also reached children whose families can’t afford fees or supplies for other registered sports leagues and others who have issues at home.

“Unfortunately, we do have more and more kids whose parents are absent from their lives, either one or both. Grandparents or other family members are raising a lot of them,” Thomas said. “I think a lot of these kids do grow up longing for that type of investment in their lives, and then kind of wrestle and fight with what their identity is and who they’re supposed to be. We have a generation of kids that are, I believe, hungry for role models.”

“It’s rare that you see Bill and Charlene anywhere that there’s not also a group of kids, including his own, helping them do whatever it is that they’re doing,” Thomas said.

For the youth involved, the impact is tangible, Thomas said. He said he’s seen youth coming to church more often due to their involvement with Pray and Play.

“They might play 10 or 12 basketball games a day. But before every basketball game, they meet in the middle of the court, and they pray over the kids, and they pray over the game,” he said. “They try to give honor to God, first, from the beginning.”

“They make you feel welcome,” said 13-year-old Rahkis Smith, who now spends a lot of time with the Coopers.

Before joining, he said he wasn’t involved in church much. But last year, he and his best friend, the Coopers’ son William Cooper, were baptized together. 

Rahkis and his friend, Bradley Riffle, 12, said friendship like theirs is what matters most about Pray and Play.

“I’ve met a lot of new people playing basketball,” Bradley said. “Praying before games makes me feel good.”

The thrift store, opened in July, is designed to make the program sustainable. Every sale funds uniforms, gym rentals, equipment and food for team gatherings.

“We can’t run these leagues without funding,” Bill Cooper said. “The store gives us a way to keep things going and help more kids.”

The thrift store is located next to Chum’s Hotdogs, a local eatery that is owned and operated by the town’s mayor, Frances Armentrout, who praises Pray and Play’s mission. She directly supports the Coopers’ mission by donating the space, which she owns.

“It’s good for the community,” Armentrout said. “I’ve worked with Mr. Cooper for a couple years now, and he is excellent with children. He reaches out to children who don’t have a very good home life and just does so much for all kids.”

The Coopers said they want the thrift store to become another community hub — a place where neighbors can donate, shop and know their contributions are cycling back into programs for children.

Thomas said this concept of a store whose proceeds go to charity is a novel idea for Marmet. He also thinks it’s a good way for the community to be more involved with Pray and Play.

The Coopers say Pray and Play is more than a sports league to the community.

Charlene Cooper said her goal is to “teach [the children] right, give them a safe space to be, and keep them fed.”

Bill Cooper added, “These kids are making choices right now that will shape their lives. If we can give them a safe place, if we can mentor them, if we can pray with them — then maybe they don’t end up where I almost did.”