Basketball team challenges Abbotsford schools to Christmas giving

The Rick Hansen Secondary School Hurricanes junior basketball team is sponsoring a family through the Christmas Bureau, and they’re putting out a challenge to other Abbotsford teams to do the same.

“Pay it forward Abbotsford! From Rick Hansen Jr Boys Basketball Team,” is the message the group of boys is putting out to teams throughout the city.

“Me and my team have decided to make this a monthly thing, because our community at this moment is not at the greatest position,” said team captain Jaydan Bains. “We decided to help out two seniors and a family. The family, it’s a single mother and two daughters. So we just wanted to give them presents and stuff, make a nice Christmas for them.”

Bains, who said the initiative was his and his mother’s idea, noted that seniors struggle with loneliness, so the team decided they also wanted to give something to a pair of seniors to help with that issue.

“We decided to make it as a whole team thing, and we were hoping to make it a challenge with other schools,” Bains said.

Bains’s mother, Sarb, said she is a proud mother, seeing the boys take on the initiative.

“I’m very proud of all the boys here. They’re the Grade 9 provincial winners for basketball, so I’ve known these boys now for a year, and I’m just so impressed with them.”