A group of homeless San Diego student athletes is raising funds to take a trip to the other side of the world, and their biggest donor so far is one of the best players in the National Basketball Association .

Five-time NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving , a guard for the Boston Celtics who won a national championship playing with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors in 2016, recently gave $8,500 to a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help volleyball players at Monarch School travel to Vietnam and Laos.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has confirmed with the Celtics that the donation came from Irving, who declined to say why he donated to the school or to comment more generally through a team spokeswoman.

Monarch School is a K-12 comprehensive school in San Diego designed to educate homeless youth.

“It kind of gave me a different perspective on the professional athlete and their influence,” Exodus Volleyball Club Director Jesse Pina said of Irving’s donation. “It just made us hopeful.”

The Exodus Volleyball Club has provided a free volleyball program for students at Monarch and coaches the students who will go on the trip.

“For them to see what life looks like in another part of the world, to be exposed to that, I think could be very life changing and really inspire them to fight to get out of the struggle they’re in,” Pina said.

Part of the trip will be funded through an International Sports Programming Initiative cooperative agreement through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs’ Sports Diplomacy division. But additional funds are needed for the girls on the team to have luggage, athletic wear, passports and other travel essentials to play volleyball abroad.

The trip, planned for the summer, will be made by freshmen, sophomores and juniors — five from Monarch and five from Exodus Volleyball Club — who Pina describes as “resilient.”

“Despite their everyday lives of not having a home, and trolleys and buses, they’re always here they have great GPAs,” Pina said. “These are just very strong young women.”

The trip will emphasize an exchange of cultures, Pina said, because it is being administered by the San Diego Diplomacy Council with support from the National Abilities Center and the U.S. Department of State.

“It is a lifetime opportunity for young female athletes from diverse social and cultural backgrounds to transcend their differences and become U.S ambassadors for peace, prosperity and stability,” The San Diego Diplomacy Council says of the fundraiser.

The San Diego girls will compete against and break bread with locals and visit a women’s museum, an elephant sanctuary and a U.S. embassy, among other educational opportunities in Bac Ninh, Hanoi and Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Luang Prabang in Laos. The girls will also put on clinics to teach volleyball to young people.

On Tuesday, the fundraiser was about one third of the way to its $25,000 goal, thanks largely to Irving.

The trip is scheduled to begin July 9 and last 15 days. In the month since the fundraising campaign was established, six people have contributed to the campaign beside Irving. These others have raised an additional $185 in donations ranging from $20 to $50.

“Every student at Monarch is either homeless or impacted by homelessness so as much support as they can get we try to give,” Pina said.

To find out more about the fundraiser, go here.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin