OAKLAND, Calif. – This summer, 11 young Bay Area basketball players took a life-changing trip designed to get them to see beyond the court and get a global perspective. Â
In July the players who are part of the nonprofits, Elevated Legacy in Oakland, Play Marin in Marin City and the Marin County Cooperation Team traveled thousands of miles to Prague. The groups had fundraised for months for the trip and now that they are back, they are sharing what the trip meant to them.
A long way from home
Some of the players say even when they left on the trip, they were not sure where exactly they were going. There were lots of new experiences from getting a new passport to navigating the airport.
One participant known as Bobo admitted, he only knew he was headed to Europe, but that was it, although he smiled when describing getting his passport, saying it was, “Great. I ain’t gonna lie.” Yamir Corrie said he didn’t know anything about Prague. “I never heard of it till we went.”
Marin County Cooperation team outreach coordinator Shannon Bynum says he could see it all sink in when they got to the airport. He says that is when they realized, “This is for real; this is definitely happening.”
Once they got there, the new experiences just kept coming. From the wrong type of gas to different types of food.
The players say they learned about basketball, including how it can unify people from different countries. They also said they learned about history, visiting concentration camps and churches and historical sites.Â
Those visits led to broader conversations. Elevated Legacy Coach Kaya Rain Pearson-Gaglia says they had to ask themselves a lot of questions about what it meant to worship, or express your religion, noting, “those are really complex questions for anybody to answer, let alone somebody who’s between the ages of 13 to 17. “
How the trip came about
This trip was made possible because three nonprofits worked together. They say the trip brought the kids around the world but also brought them.Â
Elevated Legacy was founded in 2009 and says they focus on more than basketball. They are an AAU basketball club, but the group was established to help children of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. They say they want to help their players reach their highest potential, not just as athletes but as human beings.
Play Marin was founded in 2008. It started with basketball, but it is grown much more. It also works to fulfill what it calls its core mission, “diversity and inclusion through play.” They work to reach out to communities that they call under-invested and strive to dismantle barriers to participation.
The Marin County Cooperation Team was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to make sure that support services continued in what it says is the most “racially disparate county in California.” Â
The group has now expanded its services to the wider community as an umbrella service.
What’s next:
They are going to keep sharing their stories with the community with presentations. Play Marin Founder Paul Austin says it is important for them to know “their story has impact and that it’s valued. Because too often, we’re told that our stories don’t matter.”
The hope is that while this trip is the first, it is the start of more to come. Elevated Legacy founder Chris Pearson says they want to go to Ghana with this same group and return to the Czech Republic. The hope is to continue to partner with organizations in both countries.Â