Noah isn’t a kid that just loves playing basketball, he is also a kid that loves to watch basketball. He likes watching videos of past plays and during the season, he always wants us to record the games so he can wake up and watch them before school.
His favorite team is the Raptors and he has a few players on the team that are his favorites. One of them being Danny Green. When we went to Toronto during March Break, we were able to go down fairly closet to the court to watch Danny & Pascal warm up. He was amazed and super excited. He really wanted to be able to run over and talk to them, but it couldn’t happen.
A few months back we saw on Danny Green’s Instagram that he was going to be touring Canada offering his skills clinic to a group of select cities. Halifax was one of them! It was a no brainer for us, drop everything and register him. This weekend was the big weekend and the whole house was excited.
Noah & Sandy went into the clinic for the first day as we weren’t sure if the rest of us would be able to watch or not. The group of roughly 200 did warm up exercises and Noah was excited to see a familiar face. Paloma, one of his favorite Acadia Axewomen players was there helping with the camp. She has always called him “Shorty”, but actually told him this time he was just about as tall as him, so from now on she’ll call him “Noah”.
About an hour & half into the clinic Danny Green arrived. Noah’s Buddy Jack was quick to get a high five and I can only imagine the excitement of the kids in this camp. The kids continued with their skills sessions as Danny Green wandered around. He had a Q&A session with the younger kids and the older kids and stayed visible for the rest of the camp day.
Noah had a picture taken with him at the end of the day, which he was pretty excited about. He came home with lots of stories!
Today we went in as a family. The girls and I dropped off Noah & Sandy early and then went to do some shopping. We went back to the skills clinic around the time that Danny showed up the day before. Danny has been Ella’s favorite player since he was traded to the Raptors, so she was beyond excited. All of a sudden from the door behind us walks in Danny Green and Ella was star struck lol! She stood staring at him and I had to nudge her to give him a high five. She did and then turned around, just about in tears with excitement. He went to the table beside us to chat with some of the camp staff and eat some timbits. 🙂 Ella was crazy excited.
The session went similar to the day before with another Q&A, but at the end Danny joined in with some of the 1:1 games that were happening and Noah was able to play 1 on 1 with him! It was so awesome to stand and watch Danny Green move the way he does, effortlessly and with so much skill. He really does love kids and it shows in how he interacts with them.
At the end Noah was able to get Danny to sign his Raptors jersey. The day before he had Lindell Wigginton sign it as well. He was very happy. What an amazing experience to be able to meet, watch and play with a NBA player. I love that Noah was able to have this experience.
Our family doesn’t spend a lot of money on material things, but we definitely spend money on memories. I am thankful this was one we could give Noah, because it will be with him forever, as with the rest of us!
I Dream of Summer 
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