2024 marks the 18th anniversary of the Courts for Kids program, a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to partnering with underprivileged communities worldwide to build safe sports facilities for children and adults.
“Courts for Kids takes high school and college students on a service immersion project to the developing world to partner with communities to build a safe place for their kids to play in the form of a multi-youth athletic court,” Selene Nesland, who co-founded the Courts for Kids program with her husband Derek Nesland, said.
“It’s used for whatever sport the community wants it for – the most popular court we build is for basketball, volleyball, and soccer – but these courts are used for much more than just sports, they may be the only community gathering space, so they’re used for festivals, dances, patron saint holidays, weddings, graduations,” Selene Nesland said.
The idea began over 18 years ago. Derek Nesland, one of the founders of the Courts for Kids program, played professional basketball overseas when he was younger and toured China, where he saw children who wanted to play but didn’t have access to the necessary sports facilities.
“He was very young back then, and he thought, ‘wow, someone should really help these kids, they love it so much’...it was just a thought he had,” Selene Nesland said.
“Fast forward five or six years, he [Derek Nesland] stopped playing [basketball] but he received an email from the Philippines asking if he could bring a team there to play,” Selene Nesland said.
Since he wasn’t playing basketball anymore, Derek Nesland offered a different service. He now mentored youth athletes and came up with the idea of taking a number of them on a trip to the Philippines to build a basketball court with a local community there.
Three different communities in the Philippines all requested a court of their own. All three had tried to build courts in the past but had been unable to, mostly because of the lack of funding.
“It was the spring break of 2006…we went to the students that we mentored and their parents and asked if they would like to come with us and build basketball courts in the Philippines, and 25 students and adults signed up,” Selene Nesland said.
“We went, and it was a fantastic experience, but there was no organization, we just did it,” Selene Nesland said. 
Following the trip, several communities from around the world requested basketball courts themselves. The Neslands tried to find another organization to help these communities but were unable to find one. Wanting to help, they made three more commitments to communities in Costa Rica, Honduras and Indonesia to build basketball courts.
Following those trips, the Neslands decided to quit their jobs and make running a non-profit a full-time commitment. They settled on the name Courts for Kids and have been running the program ever since.
Most of the funding for the Courts for Kids program comes from donations made by students traveling on the trips, who cover the cost of travel and materials needed for building the court.
Prior to the covid-19 pandemic, Courts for Kids did 30 projects a year, but those numbers have dropped to about 23 projects in 2023, and 25 in 2024. The Neslands want to eventually return to 30 projects a year, and potentially expand the program beyond that in coming years.
Camas currently has two projects planned – one to Oaxaca, Mexico, and another to Costa Rica.
When asked what the biggest aspect of the program was, Selene Nesland emphasized community connection.
“The most important part of Courts for Kids is that we prioritize collaboration with communities, meaning that we don’t build courts for communities, we build courts with communities,” Selene Nesland said.
