Today the Belize Basketball Federation handed over tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment to 8 associations across the country.
The Federation received funding from the Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association to purchase the equipment, which they say will assist in developing the future of basketball. The federation president told us more.
Jacob Leslie, President, BBF
"For us it's something we've been trying to accomplish since we came into office, it's really equipping our associations with the relevant equipment they need to properly train our youths. We have a lot of associations, we have 8 associations across the country who have good programs they want to run but every time they want to run a program, they have to fundraise to get the equipment so it was an initiative that we undertook that we would equip them with all the equipment they need and then we can then utilize their resources to execute what you want to do in regards to developing basketball for males and females."
"Each association is getting 2 portable hoops that are adjustable to the size of the kids, 60 balls, 20 of each size, size 5 which is for kids, size 6 which is for females, and size 7 which is for males, hurdles, ladders, cones, vests, whistles, coaches board, so they get a whole gambit of what they need to properly run any camp or any training program."
"We applied a grant through Olympic committee for $20,000 to get the equipment. We utilize that resource and we could have funded it through the US or over the border but we wouldn't have gotten the quantity that we needed. So I leveraged my relationship with some companies in China and we purchased all of these equipment wholesale and it allows us to get much more and we could give much more to each association."
Roscoe Rhys, President, Belize District Basketball Association
"A donation for any association like this is huge. For some time many association, our biggest cries have been equipment or facilities so for us to receive all this equipment, it's definitely a plus and we could make use of it and role out our after school programs and weekend programs for development in the sport of basketball."
640 athletes are expected to benefit from this donation.
