A group of youths came together this spring with a plan to rejuvenate the basketball court at the Forest Lawn Community Park. Connecting with the local Planet Youth Manager, a plan began to formulate. At United Way of Calgary and Area, we are proud to see initiatives like Planet Youth Calgary, Community Hubs and partners like Shell Canada and the Calgary Surge joining together to create a stronger Calgary. The following blog is written by Karma, a young leader in Forest Lawn who led the call to action to create a place where he and his peers could play, learn, create and excel. We are very grateful to sponsors and volunteers, who showed up to barbeque, serve food and help with the project. Thank you building stronger communities for young people to live, work and play.
Karma, the blogs author, pictured here with the Calgary Surge Mascot.
The basketball court in my neighbourhood has always been a place for me and other kids like me to lay back and enjoy ourselves. Every day after school, near summer, all the kids in the community would gather around the court to play basketball. I think one of the reasons people like basketball as a sport is because it doesn’t matter whether you are small or big, tall or short, fast or slow, it just doesn’t matter. It is a great way to have fun with friends and overall, just a great place for the community to gather.
Due to constant playing over time, the court paint had faded to the extreme. At one point the lines started to completely disappear, and graffiti became a huge issue. Inappropriate drawings had been made time and time again, but most of them faded away. Gradually as the paint faded, so did the number of children and youth playing at the court. At one point I stepped outside expecting to see a few people at the very least, but there was no one, and I kind of just stared at the ground for a little. I didn’t have an idea besides wanting to bring my community back together again with a sport we all enjoyed.
I emailed my Team Lead, the Community Social Worker at Bob Bahan Community Hub, about the idea, I expected nothing more than a simple “yes” and I had to spray it on myself, but thank goodness she’s smart, and she transformed my tiny dream into a reality, so she deserves some props, too. With her help and connections, we got to turn my idea into a whole event and brought the whole community together so that kids in the neighbourhood can rejoice again.
Shell volunteers helped make the day possible by providing a barbecue lunch and lending a hand with painting and clean-up.
Discussing the mural ideas was a tough process but we did get it done after awhile, and with the design, ideas and preparations all made, we were good to go. To me, this finally means that the kids in the community that I play with no longer argue over rules and points. This also meant I could welcome fresh faces to the sport due to the graffiti being covered by the beautiful mural created by the youth and volunteers from the community, Surafiel from Planet Youth, Jeff from Antyx and his crew. This finally meant that this once beautiful basketball court had been rejuvenated and has come back to life.
Now, when I step outside, the only thing I can hear is laughter from kids enjoying the sport. I now enjoy the court myself and to see such life grow from our community, neighbourhood and even the Forest Lawn area gives me just an overwhelming sense of happiness. Now that the graffiti had been covered up, the lines were painted back and the youth had something to look forward to after school and on weekends, I can finally rest easy knowing my community can thrive once again.
Community-led dreams and ideas are at the heart of both the Community Hubs and Planet Youth initiatives. Rather that determine outcomes, United Way of Calgary and Area looks to convene partners and collaborators that can support leaders like Karma in creating the spaces, ideas, and directions they would like to see in their communities.