I fell in love with basketball young. I was lucky. I came up through WAIS and SBL with some remarkable coaches, and the friendships from those years shaped the man I became. Long before Ark had a name it had those values. Show up, look after each other, leave the place better than you found it.

My son Leo has had a ball in his hands since he could walk. He dunked a plush basketball on a ring I hung off the wardrobe door. He played his first under-10s game at Warwick. He won his first gold medallion at Country Champs and every step has been beautiful to watch. I wanted to take everything I’d learned and build him a platform to grow on. And the moment I pictured it for Leo I couldn’t stop picturing it for every other kid like him.

I’ve spent twenty years building places Perth likes to gather in. I co-created Uncle Joe’s on King Street in 2012 and it’s still trading fourteen years on. I co-founded Head Studio, Australian Hair Salon of the Year in 2013, with a team of twenty-one. Ark is the first place I built for my boy, and it’s the one closest to my heart.

Then came the injuries and the setbacks, the normal stuff life throws at you. Somewhere in the middle of it I stopped asking what have I done and started asking what’s next. How do I stay strong in body and mind so I can show up properly for my son and my family?

Mostly, I got down on the floor with my boy and played.

So one night at the kitchen table I drew it. Not a business plan. A place. A court under a warehouse roof where no one calls time. A cafe serving the food I love making. A garden I’d been growing for years in backyards. A sauna and a cold plunge, and quiet corners to just sit. Even the pillars came out of a scrap yard, because they were too beautiful to leave behind.

Then the doors opened and other kids wandered in. I watched Leo’s exact expression, that lit-up this-is-mine look, land on face after face. Kids whose families couldn’t stretch to a membership. Kids who just needed somewhere to be.

A year on, Ark is bigger than me. My brother and I are planning a future where our boys grow up together. My sister backs us every day from the other side of the world. Emma and Glenn from Aspen Coaching run sessions under our roof for everyone from the smallest kids to the oldest. Good, family-minded people who stand for what we stand for.

I do the heavy lifting here and I don’t do it for recognition. I pour the first coffee of the day, keep the cabinet full of fresh bread and the week’s ferments, and spend my mornings with the regulars and local businesses who have become Ark’s backbone. Now I want to build a small team around me so Ark can reach further into this community and get the run it deserves.

What this fundraiser pays for:

Basketball is booming and courts are hard to come by, let alone free ones. This fundraiser pays for ARK OPEN DOORS, a year of free community access, run by a local, on a court we keep making better:

FREE OPEN COURT. Three free open-run blocks every week, 156 blocks across the year. No booking fee, no membership. Turn up and play.

THE COFFEE WALL. Pay a coffee forward. Buy one for a stranger, a kid after a run, a tradie having a rough week. It lives on the wall until someone needs it.

COMMUNITY RECOVERY. Free intro sauna and cold plunge slots each month for locals who’ve never tried it.

A PAID COMMUNITY HOST. The biggest line. Your donations fund a real part-time job for a local who opens up, runs the free blocks and keeps it all moving.

COURT UPGRADES. Gear and padding so the free hours happen on a better court.

Where every dollar goes:

The first free blocks start 1st September 2026. What’s raised by then decides how much of this list we switch on.

Where every dollar goes ($29,173)

Every dollar lands on this list, and we’ll post updates here showing it happening, receipts and all. And every donor goes up on the wall by the court, whatever the amount. Put one on the wall and your name stays part of the place.

Past the goal, we unlock THE ARK 10:

Ten local kids get a full year of weekly coaching, about $1,000 per kid, for families who’d never otherwise get it (takes the total to $39,393).

Then BEAT THE HEAT: ventilation and seating so the free summer hours stay playable (about $45,000).

Thank you for reading and I look forward to growing this wonderful community together - Mark Cain