INSPIRATION ON AN ISLAND

Many of you know I love basketball. I especially love university, college and high school basketball.
I enjoy the growth and positive outcomes for many of these kids. I enjoy the camaraderie and spirit. It is a different game when it isn’t an overpriced pro league.
The teams from different schools travel a lot and do all kinds of fundraising to pay for their travel costs.
I have bought the chicken, the pie shells, the poinsettias, the wrapping paper and yes, even the manure.
But imagine you live in an isolated community. Who do you play against? Who comes to your school to challenge you in a game?
Haida Gwaii is off the British Columbia coast and is a group of islands commonly referred to as the Queen Charlotte Islands. You will get here by boat or by plane. For them to travel to play any other teams it can mean multiple, long ferry rides. If the weather turns bad it means longer stays in hotel rooms as well.

These boys needed to raise about $40,000 – $50,000 to play this year. It is worth it. There has been a basketball scholarship for one of the players, Nathan Vogstad, to go to Simon Fraser University.
“It is showing they can make it to university too. It is not impossible being on Haida Gwaii,” says Vogstad. “If you work hard enough and keep going to the gym, you can do it too.”
Hats off to this small community for supporting their basketball team so they can compete against other teams and improve their games and their futures.