Mid-county Memo Blog

 

Portland Trailblazer Seung-jin Ha helps a new basketball player at a Youth Basketball Mini-Camp held last month at Portland Christian High School.

Last month, at Portland Christian High School in east Portland, Jane Olson Mauk turned the auction item she purchased at the Oregon Korean Foundation annual dinner for her son and three friends lunch with Portland Trailblazer and Korean National Seung-jin Ha into a Portland Trail Blazer Mini-Basketball Clinic for 53 Korean high school and college exchange students, Portland Christian athletes and members of the Korean Chamber of Commerce church youth group.

Portland Trailblazers Community Outreach Youth Basketball Director Jerry Moss, back to camera, demonstrates a drill with Portland Trailblazer Seung-jin Ha’s help.
Mauk, president of the Northwest Korean Culture Society, and mother of Portland Christian High School student Erik Mauk, arranged to expand her auction item and reach out to as many young Koreans in our community as possible. To that end, she arranged for student participation from the International College Exchange student summer program at Concordia College, the Portland State University Summer International Exchange Program, the Global World International High School Exchange Program and the Oregon Korean Chamber of Commerce.

The fans that won the original auction item are, from left,  Aileen Kim, Portland Trailblazer Seung-jin Ha, Erik Mauk, Phuong Le and David Smouse.
The kids, many never having played basketball before, took to it rapidly, having fun and meeting Seung-jin Ha, a well-known sports figure in South Korea. A 21-year old, Ha is the first and so far only citizen of South Korea to ever play in the National Basketball Association.

Tags: , , , basketball clinic, east portland, international exchange program, jane olson mauk, jerry moss, korean culture, portland christian high school, portland trail blazers, Seung-jin Ha

This entry was posted on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Russell neighborhood news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.