High Five Hope Sports Fest 2009

Last month, we had an awesome Sports Fest for over 300 homeless children in Manila!   It was a success by every measure and we accomplished our goal of doubling the number of street children that we had in the program from last year and in increasing the quality of the experience, particularly for the girls and the volleyball tournament.

Rather than recap every part of the agenda, I wanted to summarize the event and also share a few personal stories that I believe will help you better understand the High Five Hope Sports Fest and program.

The High Five Hope volleyball and basketball program ran for eight weeks and culminated in a weekend-long festival that included the playoffs and finals as well as special events and guests.  We came very close to cancelling the tournament and festival this year due to the terrible series of typhoons that slammed into the Philippines through October (Typhoons Odnoy, Peping, and Lupit) and killed over 800 people and flooded more than 80% of metro Manila.  However, good friends of High Five Hope who live in Manila felt that cancelling the tournament would crush the hopes of the kids as they had been working so hard in the tournament and were looking forward to the Sports Fest at the end.  Of course, this is precisely what we aim to do with High Five Hope; to deliver hope to kids in need.  So we pushed on with the tournament, even though it meant getting very creative with where we played and the kids had to play nearly seven days a week to make up games they missed because of the typhoons.

There were quite a few kids from last years’ program that participated again this year, and it was so nice to see them again and much taller!  Sadly, two children from last years’ program overdosed on the street and passed away.  We remembered them in the opening of the Sports Fest, and it was a very moving moment for both children and adults.  So to see a kid back in the program is a really big deal; that they are committing to it again speaks volumes about them, and the hope we are providing. 

The Sports Fest weekend started on Saturday with the girls’ volleyball playoffs and finals.  For context, last year we had maybe a couple dozen girls playing on a dirt court, with the volleyball net tied between two trees.  This year we had a very nice indoor arena, a professional net and officials (including a coach from the national woman’s volleyball team), and the girls all had full uniforms and new shoes.  We had over 50 girls in the playoffs/finals, most all of who live in very desperate conditions on the street in Manila.  All of these girls live under real threats: prostitution, drug use, rape, stealing, disease are all brutal realities in their daily lives.  We opened the day with an exhibition game from the woman’s national volleyball team – who all came out to meet the girls, encourage them, and to give a very exciting exhibition game vs. the national beach volleyball team.   The High Five Hope girls in the playoffs and finals played their best and with such competition!  It was an exciting set of games and they gave it their all.  We followed the games with a guest speaker, a well-known female fashion icon from the Philippines, who spoke about hygiene, self-awareness and never giving up.   I also wanted to add something a little extra special for the girls so we hired a magician to do a show at the end of the game.  May sound a little odd, but they loved it – keep in context that these girls probably have never had a birthday party or attended a magic show – and every magic trick had them all screaming or laughing, it was just an absolute  joy to see them all smiling and giggling.

Two of my good friends from last year, Laura and Ella, had clearly stepped up as ‘leaders’ in their respective volleyball teams this year.  Ella is now 14 and was our ‘Sportsperson of the Year’ last year, for which she received a very special medal.  She approached me early on Saturday to tell me that she lost her medal (along with everything else she owned, including the wood covered box she lived in) in Typhoon Odnoy.  She was very sad about losing the medal.  I told her if she worked hard during her games, and gave it her all, she might have a chance to win another one, but no promises - she had to prove it.  “Ok Bill, I can do that, I know it,” she told me.  And to no surprise, she did just that and led her team to 2^nd place and earned another medal for sportsmanship.  When we called her name for the medal she came running across the court to give me a giant hug and then she thanked me.  I told her “No Ella, you did it, not me, you earned it!”   Which is true, I leave the judgment of the awards to the referees and coaches, but that look on her face, the confidence and satisfaction and pride, when she ran up to receive her medal is the reason why we do this.  It’s for girls like Ella, who are literally thrown away, often orphaned, anonymous, forgotten and frequently abused because of their condition in life.  It’s for girls like Ella to get a chance to see that they can work hard and succeed, that they can be leaders on a team, that they can compete and win.  I have huge confidence in Ella, and the kids like her.

Sunday was the basketball playoffs and finals.  We invited all the kids to attend Sunday’s events, if they were playing or not.  So we had all 300 children at the outdoor courts.  The boys were all teenagers, up to 17, so the games were intense competition.  It was so great to see them out there in team jerseys, shoes (something we didn’t have last year!), and playing so competitively.   We hired professional referees and the game play was fast and furious.  Keep in mind, most of these kids are in survival mode, frequently in gangs, so we have to keep a close eye on the competition as it can go from competitive to violent pretty quickly.  But all the boys played very well and with a huge amount of respect for one another and the officials.  I was very proud of them.

My good friend Patricia Hizon, who is a sportscaster for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and a highly involved charitable lightning rod in Manila, asked some of her PBA friends to stop by the tournament.  We had a very well-known former PBA star, Rob Johnson, and a current rookie PBA player Chris Timberlake spend all day with us for the basketball playoffs.  We were also able to have several PBA stars, past and present, at our opening ceremonies for the tournament.   Mike Burtscher, a rookie star on the Alaska Aces PBA team, was once a child on the street who made his way out of poverty to become a professional basketball player and shared his story with all of the kids.  Our High Five Hope kids know these guys like our kids in the U.S. would know a Kobe or Lebron, so having them show up to watch their games, talk to them, encourage them, shoot around with them, and help hand out awards, was just huge and I could see the children’s eyes literally sparkle when they were talking to these guys.  And I’ll tell you, these guys have big hearts, I got some good time to chat with them and they love what High Five Hope is doing and they love connecting with these kids through their passion of basketball.   The players bring a ton of value and help solidify the impact and specialness of the High Five Hope program for these kids, I can’t thank them enough.

We partner with a non-profit based in Manila, Childhope Asia, whose volunteers help with the day-to-day education of the kids and also serve as coaches for their neighborhood teams.  At the end of the tournament for the kids, the Childhope coaching staff plays a ‘fun’ game against me and friends from Microsoft Philippines.  I say ‘fun’ in quotes as these guys are younger, faster, fitter and use to playing in 90+ heat/humidity… this is my excuse, at least, for losing by 5 points J  After the tournament we held an awards ceremony, handing out very nice medals and trophies for both team placement and individual contributions and sportsmanship.

Finally, we surprised the kids by taking them all to a professional basketball double header.  PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) is HUGE in the Philippines and we were able to watch the top two undefeated teams go head-to-head and had a total blast hanging out at the game.  For most children it was the first professional sports event they had ever attended and possibly the only chance they’d ever have.  It was quite the scene as all 300 kids walked in, all wearing their Sports Fest jerseys, to fill out most of the top sections in the arena.  We laughed and yelled and sang and ‘high fived’ too many times to count.  Mango smoothies and hot dogs topped the night off.

Due to the extreme situation these street children live in, each smile and laugh that we saw during the tournament was a ‘small victory’, and as important as all of the sports-oriented lessons we focus on such as self-confidence and team play.  One out of three Manila residents is homeless, that’s at least 540,000 families – and that’s just in Manila. The reality is these children live in a highly threatened state.  Sadly, two children in the program have passed away this year due to drug use and crime.  It is heart breaking to think about, I remember playing hoops with one of these boys just a few months ago, but it is a harsh reminder just how critical our work helping these children is, and how critical it is that we do not give up.  As I mentioned in this press article, giving hope to children who have none is a serious promise.  As I write this on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, it’s a promise I am thankful to have made and I am tremendously thankful for great friends such as you who are stepping up to help bring hope to these children, and giving them not just happiness but a chance to change the direction of their lives.

Our goal for High Five Hope is to double the number of kids we reach next year.  That will involve increasing the number of tournaments, building out our girl’s program, and likely expanding to new areas.  Of course this increases our effort required.  But the results we have seen already prove we have a winning model and together we can make a real difference for many children in desperate need. 

Thank you for your help and support.  Have a great holiday.

Bill Hilf

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High Five Hope is a registered State of  Washington 501(c)(3) Non-profit Corporation