The It’s Bigger Than Basketball mental health fundraiser returned to Abbotsford on Saturday (April 18) and proceeded to shatter all previous event records.
The seventh annual charity game raised a total of $28,600 – more than tripling its previous high of $7,778 and bringing the grand total to over $55,000 all-time.
All proceeds from the event are going to the UBC Thunderbirds Mental Health Initiative and Foundry Abbotsford. This year also marked the fundraiser’s return to Abbotsford. Years one and two both occurred at Robert Bateman Secondary School, but it then moved to Langley and UBC before heading to Yale Secondary for 2026.
Event organizer Bradley Braich stated that a lot of the event’s success was due to the participants themselves helping out to raise money.
“I would attribute it to bringing it home to Abbotsford, our new website, and our first ever time using peer-to-peer fundraising,” he told The News. “All participants were asked to raise a minimum of $50 for the cause. A good number of those raised $500 plus with our highest two fundraisers, Ishaan Dhaliwal (Abby Sr.) and Lucas Tan-Ngo (Van College) raising over $1400 each.”
This year’s event featured a full day of activity beginning with a 45-minute workshop hosted by former Oregon Duck, ASU Sun Devil and Canada women’s national basketball team member Taya Hanson. The Kelowna product won a gold medal for Canada in three-on-three basketball at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and also collected gold for Canada at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in 2015.
The media creator game followed and Team DD Nation won that game. Josh Solk was named the media creator game’s most valuable player.
The women’s mini-tournament was won by Team 1 and they were led by MVP Oditte Odisho (former Duquesne NCAA Div. 1 player). Hanson also suited up for Team 1 and helped them capture the victory.
Team 1 earned the men’s mini-tournament title, with UFV’s Devan Jugpal winning the MVP. Notre Dame’s Caleb Parrotta took the boy’s all-star mini-tournament MVP with Team 1, while MVP Demicah Arnaldo from St. Thomas More Collegiate helped her team win the girl’s all-star mini-tournament with an overtime win.
Yale’s Syra Rajdev won the three-point competition, edging out Vancouver College’s Koen Li in the final. The event also recognized Yale’s Doug Primrose and referee Paul Nivins for their contributions to the sport of basketball in Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley.
Braich said more than 4oo tickets were sold for the event, over 100 athletes participated and more than a dozen volunteers helped the event run smoothly. For more information on fundraiser, visit itsbiggerthanbasketball.ca.