Port Washington's Remler steps up for Uniondale families
Port Washington Student and basketball player Harrison Remler addresses the crowd regarding a fundraiser for Haitian Earthquake relief prior to his game against Uniondale. (Feb. 2, 2010) Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara
As Port Washington boys basketball player Harrison Remler sat on a folding table near the entrance to his home gym, he looked in the direction of a spread of T-shirts, homemade cookies, brownies and cupcakes on a table next to him. They were waiting to be purchased as part of the fundraiser he organized Tuesday night called "Hoops for Haiti.''
"You want a shirt? Or a brownie? Please,'' the 6-2 senior forward said while wearing his basketball warm-ups.
Remler appeared anxious. It was about 30 minutes before his team's game against visiting Uniondale, a team from a community touched by the devastating, city-flattening earthquake in Haiti. A community that inspired him to stage this event.
"One-hundred and sixty-three students from Uniondale were affected by the tragedy in Haiti, along with 12 staff members,'' Remler told the Port Washington crowd by microphone Tuesday in a pregame speech, urging them to buy the baked goods at the door or donate money to the American Red Cross.
The figures Remler relayed were from a Newsday story he read two days after the earthquake, which reported the number of students and staff at Uniondale High who are of Haitian descent.
That story included anecdotes about students worried about loved ones in Haiti whom they had been unable to contact - family and friends who could be among the hundreds of thousands killed, injured or missing after the 7.0-magnitude quake occurred near Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital city, on Jan. 12.
"I felt it was our duty as a community to step up," Remler said. He saw an opportunity for that with a fundraiser when conference-leading Uniondale visited Port Washington's Schreiber High this past week for the teams' second meeting of the season.
Most of the items available at the door before the game were sold by the end. A small group of volunteers also walked around with donation buckets. They raised $2,030 to benefit the Red Cross in honor of Uniondale, which won the game, 52-32.
"I was so impressed by the fans, community and all of those who came out to support a great cause,'' Remler said, also thanking girls basketball player Leah Feldman, a senior who supervised the event as Remler played (scoring five points).
The white-and-blue T-shirts with "Port Washington Basketball'' on the front and "Hoops for Haiti'' on the back sold out before the game. That was around the time Remler addressed the crowd with the speech in front of the scorer's table.
"We want to let Uniondale know we're there for them,'' he said, standing next to Uniondale coach Tom Diana. As he spoke, Remler tapped the coach's shoulder in a show of support.
"For a kid to do this for a bunch of strangers is incredible,'' said Diana, whose team has one player of Haitian descent, senior Claudy Casseus, who did not have any family lost in the quake, according to the coach. "Any time a person in this world takes time to do something out of the goodness of their heart, it's humbling to see. There's not enough of that going on. Every little bit helps.''
