Care Closet helps 100 Southwest Memphis students

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — At Westwood High School, DJ’s Care Closet has already helped more than 100 students in three weeks.

The concept is that students in need of anything from personal hygiene products to haircare to clothing have a discreet place to shop for what they need with no questions asked and at no cost to parents.

DJ’s Care Closet is named after Dennis Price, Jr. He was a college-bound star athlete, loving son, and junior at Ridgeway High School before his death in 2013.

“When I dropped him off, he was happy and healthy. So, we thought. He passed in September. Basketball season was just getting ready to start,” said Dennis Price Sr., DJ’s father. “D.J. passed away in his sleep from a heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, undiagnosed heart condition.”

A decade later, on the same day, the Dennis Price Junior Foundation was born.

“I’ve been at Westwood for almost nine years now, and the need is great. We are a Title One school. And the reality is that sometimes students just don’t have what we consider to be basic needs,” said Cynthia Johnson, who runs DJ’s Care Closet during the school day.

Westwood is the second closet.. after major success at Ridgeway Middle School.
The goal is for every school in the district to have a closet and free heart screenings for athletes.

“It happens quite often in athletes, you’ve heard about football players falling out and on the field or basketball players falling out on the court. Those come back to heart conditions. So the purpose of the Dennis Price Junior Foundation is to bring awareness to parents so that no other parent would have to go through what me, his mom, stepmom, and stepfather had to go through,” said Price Sr.

To donate: https://www.thedennispricejrfoundation.com/

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.