Local non-profit renovates basketball court at Scott Collegiate

Buckets and Borders, a non-profit organization in Regina, launched the re-opening of the basketball court deemed ‘The Den’ at Scott Collegiate on Friday.

“This is the first leg of a project called pick and roll which is a three court restoration project taking place in Regina’s North Central. This is the first court, dubbed the Den,” said co-founder, Justin Lee.

The non-profit looks to renovate basketball courts as a way to bring people and communities together.

“[They’re] inclusive spaces for people to play basketball but also just to connect, and celebrate one another, celebrate multiculturalism through the game of basketball,” Lee added.

This court was designed by the students at Scott Collegiate, from the words that appear on the court, the medicine wheel in the middle, and right down to the colours.

The blue represents their school colours, the orange represents ‘Every Child Matters,’ and the yellow represents bringing people together.

“It didn’t take too long, mainly paint, new fences new backboards, a heavy hitting two weeks,” Lee said.

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Maliki, a student in Grade 9 at Scott Collegiate was a vital part of the renovation of the basketball court. He grew up playing on this court, and showed up every day to paint, and help design it.

He even came up with the words around the medicine circle at centre court, because for him, basketball is an escape.

“Basketball is a big part of my life, it keeps me from doing bad things, it keeps me away from all the gang activity that goes around North Central here, it keeps me away from doing totally bad stuff,” Maliki explained.

Seeing how the community has already come together because of the space is something that he expects to see going forward.

“It’s already done so much for me when it wasn’t this, so imagine how many people are going to want to play here now, they’ll be like, ‘Let's go play at the new court.’”

The court is open 24/7.

In order to help provide basketballs to Scott Collegiate, t-shirts and sweaters are on sale online, and two basketballs will be donated per purchase of the ‘ball for all’ gear.