A group of lucky Filipino and Filipino-American kids will be playing alongside an MVP and five-time World Champion Los Angeles Laker this summer.
Give famous Fil-Am fashion handbag designer Gina Alexander an assist.
The Gina Alexander Philanthropy Project and Kobe Bryant Family Foundation — working with the Black Card Circle Foundation — recently made it all happen by raising more than $10,000 for scholarships that will allow 10 underprivileged youngsters to attend the Kobe Bryant Basketball Academy.
The money came during a special reception and fundraiser on July 5 at Katsuya, an upscale restaurant at the Americana mall in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale.
The youths are now set to test their basketball skills against Bryant later this month during the camp, which will be held in Santa Barbara. Three of the children are from the Philippines and the rest were Fil-Ams who were recommended by Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), according to Alexander.
"I wanted to give these kids an opportunity to play with Kobe, and that's like a dream come true," Alexander told the Asian Journal. "I'm always thinking of the welfare of underprivileged children, especially in the Philippines."
Bryant was not able to make the recent fundraiser, but he'll be at the camp. The cost of attending the Kobe Bryant Basketball Academy ranges from $575 to $700. Bryant gave away 20 scholarships for his basketball camp this year — ten to Alexander and ten to the office of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's After School All-Stars program.
The recent fundraiser will help pay other costs for the children, including transportation for the three coming from the Philippines.
Alexander said she's grateful to Bryant and credits him for taking the initiative of bringing Filipino kids over to the U.S. to attend his basketball camp. She said she brought up the idea to Bryant about a year ago.
"The moment I texted Kobe if he was interested in bringing kids from the Philippines to his basketball camp, he contacted me back within two minutes," said Alexander, who has had a working relationship with Kobe and his wife, Vanessa Bryant for the past five years. She's been designing Vanessa Bryant's handbags and other gifts and accessories for Bryant's family and friends.
"He got his people in right away to come and meet with me and I was just in shock," Alexander recalled. "We made it happen."
Initially, the idea was to bring over 10 kids from the Philippines to attend the basketball camp, but Alexander faced a lot of challenges.
"Many of these kids don't even have a birth certificate, let alone an ID card," said Alexander, who went to Smokey Mountain in Tondo and other poor regions in Manila to recruit children who were interested in attending the camp.
"We tried working with the U.S. embassy and the Philippine passport agency, but it was like going through the Pentagon," she added.
Eventually, Three Filipino kids managed to secure the proper paperwork. One arrived to the U.S. this past weekend and was able to make it to the fundraiser. The other two were expected to follow shortly thereafter, she said.
During the fundraiser, a teary Alexander implored more than 300 attendees to donate as much as they could. She said most of the children in Baseco, a well-known slum along the Pasig River in Manila, only have the clothes on their back and have to dig garbage for food or recyclable materials to sell for food.
Alexander also encouraged members of the crowd to visit poverty-stricken countries and to volunteer helping these underprivileged people.
The fundraiser hosted a silent and live auction. A signed Kobe Bryant Nike shoe went for $3,500. Other auction items included an encrusted diamond watch worn by Brooke Shields.
Joseph Pimentel is a writer for Asian Journal.
Photo of Kobe Bryant with Richard and Gina Alexander from Asian Journal; photo of Kobe Bryant on the court from Wikipedia.
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