Stan Abell, an American, met a young man named Jonas who was shooting hoops at an orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti. The single basketball goal was affixed to a palm tree & a rough gravel patch served as the court. Stan conversed with Jonas & told him that he had a 10-year-old son who plays basketball in America. He then emailed the above photograph to his son, Harry, & immediately the Hoops for Haiti project was born!

Harry excitedly wrote back that he wanted to build Jonas a real basketball court. So that's just what they're doing. The surface is being custom-built by a Haitian contractor & will include cool extras such as court lines painted by the orphans themselves. This is not only a community-building project but an income generator as well with the possibility of everything from court rental & food sales during games to being a responsible tourism destination for mentoring-through-sports summer camps. It will also be home to the 80+ child orphanage's daily physical education activities.

Let's do this HopeMob!!!