Doing His Part: This Guy Is Helping The Homeless Find March Madness Viewing Locations

Max Sanders had a life-changing epiphany while on his way to the 2018 March Madness tournament. After passing a man sleeping on a park bench, Sanders grew sad over the plight of the poor. Wanting to engage a marginalized group, Sanders ordered his driver to pull over and woke up the sleeping man covered in his own filth to ask him if he caught the Elite Eight matchup the night before.

“He looked at me as if he had no idea what I was talking about, like March Madness wasn’t even on his radar,” Sanders said, “and that’s when I decided I had to do my part because the homeless viewership demographic can no longer fall through the cracks.”

Indeed, the nearly 600,000 homeless people in the United States often lack the chance to watch college basketball’s annual March Madness tournament. Sanders — who also grew up in a family that didn’t watch March Madness at any of their homes — says he could easily empathize with this hardship.

“No one in America should wake up wondering if they’ll be able to watch the drama of the Final Four,” Sanders said. “We shouldn’t speed-walk past the homeless when they beg for change or food, but rather escort them to the nearest sports bar to watch the game.”

Sanders’ desire to spread this message is what spurred Views for Vagabonds, a community-based approach to solving the lack of homeless access to the tournament.

“Most homeless shelters don’t have anything above a 23-inch TV and a screen that small won’t do the tournament justice,” Sanders said. “Luckily, we’re able to line them up outside the perimeter of a restaurant while we go inside to eat wings and drink beer with friends, making sure to angle everything just right so that they can see the game through the blinds.”

Sanders has ensured nearly 100 people caught a glimpse of at least one game over the course of three March Madness tournaments. “It goes to show that when we come together as a community, there’s nothing we can’t solve, at least until the police arrest the homeless for loitering.”