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Rick Gill and Hoops 4 Hope
Q&A with Rick Gill, Fund Advisor
High school teacher Rick Gill and his team of student basketball players shot more baskets for fundraising in 2008 than most people shoot in their lives. When they saw South African youth donning their donated sneakers and sports uniforms, they knew it was well worth the effort.
What is Hoops 4 Hope about?
Our motto is Freedom Through Sport, so Hoops 4 Hope tries to create freedom through educating kids in Africa, using sport as a tool for engagement.
Many of the kids we work with live in shanty towns in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and some of them stay home and do drugs, or the girls get into prostitution to survive. So we’re trying to show them that if they get an education, they can make a different kind life for themselves.
Why is sport the key?
Kids love playing sports, and soccer and basketball are both games where they just need a ball and maybe a hoop or goal posts. We try to teach them how to learn through group work, with discipline and determination, and the kids start to learn how to work together to achieve goals.
How are students in Canada involved?
I want my students to have better global awareness, so together we created a goal to fill up a 40-ft. container with sneakers, footballs, team uniforms and basketballs, even bikes, and send it off to Africa. We sent 13,000 pairs of shoes as well as other sports gear.
