The Islandwide Beautification Task Force recently teamed up with two local businesses to spruce up a basketball court in the island’s capital.
Last Friday, the Island Beautification Task Force joined Crowns Guam and Paradise Fitness Guam to celebrate the completion of the Paseo de Susana Basketball Court mural project.
As part of their adoption commitment, Crowns Guam and Paradise Fitness commissioned local artist Lee San Nicolas to paint a mural on the basketball court.
Crowns CEO Randy Alcantara tells PNC the project took about a week to complete and the mural features floral art with vibrant colors, representing the company’s brand of island pride, with the color gray mixed in to evoke street culture.
“So when we found out the court was available for adoption, we were like, man, let’s see what we can do to kind of give it a new look and put our little flavor into it and kind of give back a little bit to our community and maybe in the future, we can utilize the court for an event we would love for us to do in the future. So definitely, it just came up,” Alcantara said.
For his part, Paradise Fitness general manager Michael Sgro spoke about basketball’s long-standing impact on the island community and that it made sense to start the project at the courts.
“Outdoor basketball courts have been like a staple in the community, especially if you grew up playing basketball. We all have those Space Jam stories when you’re outside, the outdoor court and you know, unfortunately, a lot of the outdoor courts are just run down. I personally never played at the Paseo basketball court. But now, you see groups of people there playing different weekdays, or even as early as 6 am or 6 pm. It was a conversation we had at the Crowns corporate office with Randy Alcantara, the CEO, and the creative director Shawn Taitano. You know, they said they’re going to move forward with it and to me, it was a no brainer to jump on board and help them out,” Sgro said.
The renovation was part of the Islandwide Parks and Recreational Facilities Renovations projects and funded by the Department of the Interior.
Lt. Gov. Josh Tenrio, who is the chair of the IBTF, had this to say about the project:
“We know that sports have the unique ability to inspire and unite people from all backgrounds, and adopting this basketball court helps inject excitement and enthusiasm in our community. Our entire team from the Islandwide Beautification Task Force thanks Crowns Guam and Paradise Fitness for investing in our community. We will continue to provide our support and encourage all of our community partners to join our Parks Adoption Program.”
Crowns Guam plans to adopt more parks and hold other community events for the island’s youth including a street ball tournament next month.
If you are interested in adopting a park, call the Islandwide Beautification Task Force at 473-1162
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