Thunderbird Athletes Council (TAC) raised a total of $1793 as part of a fundraising initiative for the Black Health Alliance.
“The Black Lives Matter movement has my own and the TAC’s full support … The Tac will continuously advance our efforts to strive for racial equality,” said VP Internal of TAC Logan Carver, who has been involved with TAC’s fundraising initiative for the Black Health Alliance and is part of UBC men’s golf.
“Furthermore, I would like to reiterate that this movement is for racial justice for everyone. The TAC recognizes the intersections within this movement and understand that freedom can only be reached when everyone is equal,” said Carver.
TAC has created a fundraiser for the Black Health Alliance through Facebook, aiming to raise $1000.
“Initially we had a hard time setting a realistic goal and an estimate on how long it will take us to get there. We were pleasantly surprised to see so many people within the Thunderbird community fundraise within their own merits, without much pleading and advertising,” said Carver.
The Black Health Alliance is a charity that focuses on social determinants of health, health inequities, anti-black racism and building connected communities.
Carver mentioned that TAC recognizes the privilege to be in a position to take action to help others.
“After discussing with athletics we decided that the Black Health Alliance was doing important work to address racial health disparities specifically in Canada … This charity fights to limit the disparity of basic health and wellbeing standards,” said Carver.
Along with this fundraiser, Carver added that TAC will be presenting diversity and anti-racism training for the athletes as well as for TAC executives.
“We would like to connect with Black, Indigenous, and other minority groups on campus to talk about ways our student-athlete community can aid and assist them in any way,” said Carver.
Although no athletes have brought up their experiences with racism to TAC so far, Carver acknowledged how they may feel uncomfortable voicing their experiences.
“We want to change that. We are in the midst of discussing the best practices on how to get more opinions from our student athletes, and community,” said Carver.
“For example, we are looking into an anonymous survey to learn more about student-athlete’s experience with racism and if there are other actions they would like to see from us and the athletics department. We will take all anonymous replies extremely seriously.”
TAC is open to hearing different perspectives and ideas.
“We are here to help, to hear ideas and different perspectives so please reach out to myself or anyone associated with the TAC to work towards real change. We want the TAC committee and the school to be a safe space for all.”
There are a few more Canada-specific places you can donate to in order to help support the Black community, including Hogan’s Alley Society, Black Women Connect Vancouver, the Black in BC community support fund and Justice for Regis. Here is a list of Vancouver-based Black businesses you can support. For United States-based causes, a few options are Reclaim the Block and the Black Visions Collective.