This is a post from Brian B, one of the adult leaders who took youth to our annual Blazer\u2019s Edge Night event yesterday evening. He wants to share some of his experiences of the game and the people he brought with Blazer\u2019s Edge readers.<\/p>\n
The lights drop.
Moda Center rumbles.
The bass thumps through the floor.
The announcer\u2019s voice cuts through the darkness:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026your Portland TRAAAAAIL BLAZERS!\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever been there in that moment, you know the feeling. The anticipation. The electricity. The sense that something big is about to happen.<\/p>\n
Last night, because of you, a couple thousand young people experienced that moment for the first time.<\/p>\n
Last night was Blazers Edge Night, and more than 2,600 tickets for local youth were provided by you, this site\u2019s readers.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a youth camp director in a lower-income area. I also have the privilege of coaching some of our local youth basketball teams through our community center. Because of your generosity, 40 kids and chaperones from our group got to share that experience together.<\/p>\n
And for many of them, this wasn\u2019t just another night out.<\/p>\n
For some, it was their first NBA game.
For others, their first time inside an arena that big.
For a few, it was simply a chance to be part of something exciting alongside their friends.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re helping youth teams bond.
You\u2019re helping youth groups create shared memories.
You\u2019re giving kids an experience that many of them might never have had otherwise.<\/p>\n
And yes, let\u2019s be honest, you\u2019re also helping build the next generation of Blazers fans too.<\/p>\n
But the magic doesn\u2019t start when the lights drop.<\/p>\n
For groups like ours, and many others coming in from rural areas, the experience begins long before tip-off.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the trip to the game.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the music playing in the car on the way up.
It\u2019s the kids singing along and joking with each other.
It\u2019s the excitement building mile by mile.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s getting to stay up late on a school night.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s grabbing arena food that somehow tastes better than normal food.
It\u2019s pointing at the court during warmups and saying, \u201cThat\u2019s really them.\u201d
It\u2019s the wide-eyed moment when the arena lights dim and the whole building comes alive.<\/p>\n
Those moments will stick with them.<\/p>\n
Years from now, many of these kids won\u2019t remember the final score.<\/p>\n
But they will remember the trip.
They will remember the atmosphere.
They will remember sharing something special with their friends.<\/p>\n
And that happened because of you.<\/p>\n
Blazers Edge readers didn\u2019t just buy tickets.<\/p>\n
You created experiences.
You built memories.
You helped a couple thousand young people feel, for one night, like they were part of something big.<\/p>\n
From our group, and from many others across the region;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a post from Brian B, one of the adult leaders who took youth to our annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37790,6,687,471,63976,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-653288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-blazers-gameday-coverage","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portland-trail-blazers-discussion","15":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","16":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116212429332040008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}