One year after meeting two members of the Harlem Globetrotters while battling a brain tumour at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, Maya Kolbasnick reunited with her favourite team.
The Globetrotters’ Zeus McClurkin and his teammate Champ Thompson surprised the 11-year-old at her school in Waterloo with basketball tricks and gifts.
Maya was also invited to watch the team play in Kitchener on April 10 after she was unable to do so the year prior due to complications with her tumour. She was supposed to sing the national anthem at the event.
Alexandra Kolbasnick, the girl’s mother, said her daughter has been out of hospital since May 2018 and was able to go back to school full-time. Kolbasnick said the team kept in touch with the family to see how Maya was doing and organized the special surprise for her at the school.
The video of the reunion shows clips of McClurkin’s original visit with Kolbasnick in the hospital before capturing the moment of the two players visiting Maya in class.
“It’s not always that I get a chance to see a child outside of SickKids or outside of the hospital after we already did a Smile Patrol visit with them so it was very special, not just for Maya but it was important for me to see her,” said McClurkin, adding that the fact Maya remembered him from his original visit was really touching.
In the video, Maya told McClurkin it’s “the best day ever.”
To cap off the day, both players spent some time doing tricks for the entire school.
“Thank you to Zeus and Champ. This has been a great opportunity, thank you so much,” Maya said about the reunion.
“It let me know what I’m doing matters and that I’m really making a difference,” McClurkin said. “Especially just looking at her smile today.”
The Globetrotters will be playing 15 games in Ontario in the month of April.
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