It all started because Curran Ellis is a big Penn State fan.

It ended with the LEAD Club donating T-shirts to Ready, Willing and Able, a works program in Philadelphia.

Ellis, a senior center for the Moorestown Friends boys’ basketball team, wanted a way for the Foxes fans to show support and he could think of no better way than for them to wear white T-shirts at Friday’s Friends League opener against George School.

“I brought the idea to (Athletic Director Danielle Dayton), she made it a reality,” said Ellis. “We wanted a competitive game and we wanted to get people excited.”

And with the crowd in white, the Foxes beat George School 54-37. Students who didn’t have white T-shirts were given one to wear by members of LEAD (Lead, Engage, Act, Deliver). Shirts were collected at the end of the game to be washed and, along with new shirts, will be donated to Ready, Willing and Able.

“There are small things they weren’t really getting,” said George Bader, a senior from Moorestown, said of the men at Ready, Willing and Able.

LEAD, an activist and engaging group, chose to address homelessness, incarceration and what it’s like to get out of jail and back into society as the theme for the club this year.

And after an intensive learning week last year, the students chose Ready, Willing and Able as an organization that would help them realize their goal of helping men who were trying to return to society.

“(Ready, Willing and Able) helps men climbing out of homelessness or getting out of prison,” said Bader.

Ready, Willing and Able is a yearlong program that gives these men clothes, food and shelter. Men must apply for the program, Bader said. The men are given jobs, working for the City of Philadelphia.

“It is so powerful,” said Bader of working with the organization and meeting the participants. “They all have unique stories of how they got there. They’re heartwarming stories.”

The ultimate goal, Bader said, is for the men to graduate, find a stable job and live in stable housing.

The LEAD Club held a suit drive earlier in the year to provide jackets, pants, shirts and ties for the men.

“They needed these things for job interviews,” said Ari Levine, a sophomore from Cherry Hill. “The whole school was involved.”

The club, which meets once every six school days during lunch, has been studying homelessness and problems men getting out of jail face. The club evolved from the Food Not Bombs club that Bader said was more of an activist group than what this year’s club wanted to do.

“We wanted to focus on helping rather than just activism,” Bader said.

And while Bader and Levine said it feels good to help, the club and working with Ready, Willing and Able has done more.

“We’ve been able to examine the American penal system through discussion and investigation,” said Bader. “The system is flawed. It’s given us a new perspective on how the system works.”