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CHARITIES
Steve Nash
MVP
No one can undermine the power and skill of Steve Nash’s game. Twotime
NBA MVP award-winner, All-Star team member, former captain of the
Canadian Men’s National Basketball Team and community leader, Steve
Nash is a star on the basketball hardwood and off.
Nash wasn’t born Canadian – Johannesburg, South Africa, was his city
of birth but his family relocated to Victoria, British Columbia, to avoid
raising their children in the South African apartheid system. He received
his education and played out his athletic high school years at both Mount
Douglas Secondary and St. Michael’s University, where he excelled at
more than basketball. Nash was dribbling the soccer ball and shooting
hockey pucks in addition to dunking Spaldings on the wooden court.
Opportunities south of the border for Canadian high school basketball
players were few and far between, as U.S. NCAA coaches usually only
scouted within the country. But Santa Clara University head coach Dick
Davey saw something in Nash’s highlight reels that no one else did. He
saw a basketball star. He offered Nash a scholarship, and the young point
guard led the university to the NCAA Men’s Division I championship and
played for the Canadian National Team at the World University Games.
From there, the whole world knows the Steve Nash story. He fi rst played
for the Phoenix Suns, then for the Dallas Mavericks, and then accepted a
contract back in Phoenix. There, he remains as one of the team’s and the
League’s most valuable players. Instead of parlaying his fame into the dark
side of sports celebrity, Nash channels his spare time on giving back to
those around him through his Steve Nash Foundation.
There is a greater plan for the Steve Nash
Foundation to expand to other areas in
the world.
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The foundation was established in 2001 and granted offi cial charity status in
2004. Run by his high-school friend Jenny Miller (who serves as Executive
Director) and his younger sister Joann Nash (who serves as Canadian
Program Director), it focuses on giving underserved children opportunities
for a better life through health, personal growth, education and the fun
moments that many people take for granted. Through grants to non-profi t
organizations and public services such as Adoptive Families Association
of BC, The Strathcona Community Centre and the Global Youth Fund,
the Foundation, which shares its resources mainly in Phoenix, Arizona and
British Columbia, is able to bring hope to children facing extremely diffi cult
life circumstances.
There is a greater plan for the Steve Nash Foundation to expand to other
areas in the world, a plan that is already in motion with an application
to register as a charity in Canada, the installation of a neonatal intensive
care ward in Paraguay, funded in great part by Steve’s own endorsement
contracts and a Support Hope campaign. Other successful initiatives
launched by the organization include a free access centre for children in
Toronto, as well as a foundation mandate that encourages eco-friendly
practices and policies within the organization and among its affi liates. Not
one to ignore the adults, Nash recently opened a fully equipped fi tness
facility in Vancouver’s downtown core, following his environmentally
conscious vision by having the contractors utilize as many green building
materials as possible during its construction.
The Steve Nash Foundation Charity Classic at GM Place held on July 21,
2007, proved to be another victorious fundraising endeavor. The positive
benefi ts of this highly successful annual event have just begun.
And Steve Nash will remain an MVP, both on and off the court.