Haitians to compete in Vancouver
Donation protected
Haitian Basketball Team Headed to the World Indigenous Basketball Challenge in Burnaby, BC
My name is Sebastian Petion, and I live and work in Haiti. You may be surprised to know this, but we Haitians love basketball - it is second only to soccer in popularity. We have a semipro basketball league, called the League Association Haitienne de Basketball Corporatif (ASHBAC) , which I always watched with my young boys.
Then, in January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake changed my nation forever. Buildings collapsed, killing 220,000 Haitians. Another 300,000 were injured. Me and my family were homeless, along with 1.5 million people. Then cholera came, killing thousands more.
Basketball helped me — it helped a lot of us.
I had spent a portion of my childhood in the United States, and grew up in a group home where I learned how to play basketball. I was good enough to play for Winthrop University in South Carolina, but returned to Haiti after my schooling. After the earthquake us Haitians were depressed — hopeless. I thought, “Why not put together a team for the ASHBAC league?” We needed basketballs, uniforms, runners. Bongu, a food and household goods company, backed us. I held tryouts. The first year, we were bottom of the league. I promised Bongu a championship team, and the next season we won! I coach them, and this year won ASHBAC Coach of the Year.
Just as exciting, we’re trying to raise money to come to Canada. We’ve been invited to play in the World Indigenous Basketball Challenge at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby near Vancouver this August 10-13. This 20-team tournament features teams from around the world, including possibly South Sudan. It is being hosted by the Skidegate Saints of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia and Dave Wahl , a basketball coach in Haida Gwaii, is the organizer of this summer event.
While my team’s food and accommodations will be taken care of while we’re in Burnaby, we have to raise the money for our plane tickets. Including team members and coaches, that’s $22,000. We need to raise these funds by late June or early July so we can buy our tickets.
It will be an incredible experience for these young players from Haiti, who have endured so much and worked so hard to become international-level basketball competitors. It will also be a great experience for Canadians to meet these guys. And, for me, it will be the chance to meet up with those people whom I call family, who gave me a room to stay and mentoring while I attended the Langara College Digital Film Production in Vancouver in 2012.
If you could help us out with the fundraising, that would be amazing. In the next few months, I’ll be posting information about each of the players, and discussing training and prep for Vancouver.
Thanks so much to Canada, the United States and all my brothers and sisters in Haiti and those living abroad.
Sebastian Petion
My name is Sebastian Petion, and I live and work in Haiti. You may be surprised to know this, but we Haitians love basketball - it is second only to soccer in popularity. We have a semipro basketball league, called the League Association Haitienne de Basketball Corporatif (ASHBAC) , which I always watched with my young boys.
Then, in January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake changed my nation forever. Buildings collapsed, killing 220,000 Haitians. Another 300,000 were injured. Me and my family were homeless, along with 1.5 million people. Then cholera came, killing thousands more.
Basketball helped me — it helped a lot of us.
I had spent a portion of my childhood in the United States, and grew up in a group home where I learned how to play basketball. I was good enough to play for Winthrop University in South Carolina, but returned to Haiti after my schooling. After the earthquake us Haitians were depressed — hopeless. I thought, “Why not put together a team for the ASHBAC league?” We needed basketballs, uniforms, runners. Bongu, a food and household goods company, backed us. I held tryouts. The first year, we were bottom of the league. I promised Bongu a championship team, and the next season we won! I coach them, and this year won ASHBAC Coach of the Year.
Just as exciting, we’re trying to raise money to come to Canada. We’ve been invited to play in the World Indigenous Basketball Challenge at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby near Vancouver this August 10-13. This 20-team tournament features teams from around the world, including possibly South Sudan. It is being hosted by the Skidegate Saints of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia and Dave Wahl , a basketball coach in Haida Gwaii, is the organizer of this summer event.
While my team’s food and accommodations will be taken care of while we’re in Burnaby, we have to raise the money for our plane tickets. Including team members and coaches, that’s $22,000. We need to raise these funds by late June or early July so we can buy our tickets.
It will be an incredible experience for these young players from Haiti, who have endured so much and worked so hard to become international-level basketball competitors. It will also be a great experience for Canadians to meet these guys. And, for me, it will be the chance to meet up with those people whom I call family, who gave me a room to stay and mentoring while I attended the Langara College Digital Film Production in Vancouver in 2012.
If you could help us out with the fundraising, that would be amazing. In the next few months, I’ll be posting information about each of the players, and discussing training and prep for Vancouver.
Thanks so much to Canada, the United States and all my brothers and sisters in Haiti and those living abroad.
Sebastian Petion
Organizer
Sebastian Petion
Organizer
Vancouver, BC
