KINGSTON, Jamaica — At least 2,000 children and teens across western Jamaica are expected to gather in Treasure Beach to benefit from a basketball training camp next week as volunteers fly in to put on what they hope will be a lesson in sportsmanship, passion and resilience.

The PMBL Treasure Beach Jamaican Youth Basketball Camp is led by Jake Kind each year, in partnership with the Breds Foundation, spearheaded by Jason Henzell and will this year host its 12th annual camp.

“We are focusing on getting buses into areas that were affected by the hurricane so we’re spreading the word in Parrottee, in Galleon, the whole Black River area, you know, because we know that these children would not have had it easy in the last 10 months so this would be something to hopefully brighten up their summer,” Henzell said referring to the passage of Hurricane Melissa which devastated the western portion of the island.

Since its inauguration, PMBL camps have only ever missed one year, because of COVID-19, and the passage of Hurricane Melissa has not put a damper on the camp at all; instead, it has fired up Kind and his coaches to create a positive environment for the children of western Jamaica.

Kind spoke to Observer Online as he was in the process of boarding a flight to Montego Bay for this year’s camp.

“When Hurricane Beryl hit a couple years ago, we were contemplating if we were going to be able to come or not, and we started getting videos from our campers really imploring us to come down. And that regardless of the situation and the devastation, they still wanted to express themselves… this year, I feel the same way, that we’re really going to be a great distraction for them, hopefully kickstart their school year and really bring a tonne of positivity, energy, and joy to some kids who really deserve it and need it,” Kind explained.

Kind explained that all of the coaches who participate pay their own way to Jamaica so that every dollar donated goes to the camp and the children, who will be fed three meals per day and will receive a full basketball kit including jersey and gear as well as school supplies.

Kind is deeply committed to the camp and has only missed one staging, the year he was battling stage 3B colorectal cancer. Even then, he explained that it was at the forefront of his mind.

“ When I was sick and doing chemo, the only thing that was really going through my mind outside of being around so I could meet my eventual wife and have a child, which I did six months ago, is that I wanted to come down to this camp and put this on for these kids,” he said.

Commenting on what keeps him coming back over and over, Kind added:

“It’s the people. It’s the kids. It’s the community. It’s the love, the energy, the shared joy that we get to experience every year. This is what I look forward to the other 51 weeks of the year…The first time I came to Jamaica 15 years ago was the first time as an adult I ever felt like I was at home.”

Of particular delight for Kind is the increasing interest he can see in basketball in Jamaicans, and while acknowledging that football and athletics are most popular locally, the coach is confident that the country has a particular affinity for basketball, mentioning players of Jamaican descent like Norman Powell and rising star AJ Dubinsky.

“If you’re fast in Jamaica, you’re the fastest in the entire world…There aren’t a tonne of island-born Jamaicans in the league, but there are an amazing amount of Jamaican players who have parents of Jamaican descent…I see the beginnings of that talent on a regular basis in our camp.  On any day, we have 500 kids under the age of 12, and we have anywhere from 500 to 1,000 kids over the age of 15. You can see the incredible raw talent.”

Kind maintained that Jamaica is “absolutely on the rise” from a basketball perspective, citing recent wins from the men’s senior team.

“There’s absolutely really positive momentum going on in basketball in Jamaica.  And not to throw my shoulder out patting ourselves on the back,  but I do think that the consistency for the last 12 years that we’ve been down here and the groundswell of grassroots basketball that we’re building has started to make a little bit of an impact,” he said.

Describing basketball as a vehicle for social change, Kind noted that the participating students will be taught the basics of basketball from defensive stances to dribbling, passing and shooting, over the five-day camp.

Set for Bred’s Treasure Beach Sports Park and Academy, from August 10 – 14 the camp will be split into morning and afternoon sessions with breakfast at 8:00  and lunch at 1:30, followed by the afternoon session until 6:30, plus a one-hour invite-only evening session for select youngsters afterwards.

Friday morning will feature a massive slip and slide for youngsters under the age of 12 and games for older campers.

At 5:00 pm, the Kenny Kind invitational Jamaica-wide basketball tournament will be held, where adult groups, including the Jamaica Defence Force and the Caribbean Basketball Association, will participate.

The event does not have a corporate sponsor and is instead put on through donations, Kind explained.

“We’re expecting north of 2,000 kids, unfortunately, that comes with a cost.  We provide three meals a day, transportation, a full basketball kit, sneakers, shorts, jerseys, socks, etc, backpacks. We’re really trying to help these kids go back to school in a productive way…so if you’re out there listening and have some funds that you can share, we know it’s not easy out there for anybody these days, but we would really appreciate it,” he said.

Interested individuals can donate at pmblcamps.com

For Henzell, one thing he hopes children take from the camp is the choice to be kind.

“To me that’s a very important option, when things are hard you can feel you know victimised and you can go inward up in your emotions so you know we really want to be spreading joy and kindness during this week and for kids to see and appreciate that you know these people that are coming from overseas to run this camp you know, it’s something that they chose to do yes and we [too] can choose kindness,” he said.

Similarly, Kind expressed, “We’re trying to instil in these kids that if they listen, if they play hard, if they’re resilient, it’s not how many times you get knocked down. Beryl or Melissa or whatever hurricane comes next. It’s about how many times you can pick yourself back on the mat and try again.”