We all remember the devastating earthquake that ravaged the tiny Caribbean island of Haiti in 2010, but what you probably didn't know is that current Sacramento King and former Kentucky Wildcat, Skal Labissiere, was one of those Haitian children who was trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. 

As the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the western hemisphere's poorest country on January 12th, Skal's 3 story family home came crashing down on himself, his mom, and his younger brother, who were all in the family's living room when the shaking began.

With a collapsed wall leaning against his back and rubble all around him, Skal was forced to sit among the debris in a crouched position for over 3 hours before his dad and neighbors pulled him out. The prolonged crouching wrecked the limbs of a growing 13 year old (who's now 6'11"), leaving him unable to walk for weeks after. 

With schools, homes, and city infrastructure in shambles, the devastating aftermath of the earthquake forced Skal's parents to make the gut-wrenching decision to send him to America to get an education and develop his basketball skills beyond the options available to him in Haiti.

By August of 2010, Skal had moved to Memphis, Tennessee and by July of the following year, he'd already begun receiving scholarship offers from major D1 programs. In 2015, he signed to play at Kentucky as the #1 high school recruit in the country and in 2016 he was picked in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings.   

Becoming a professional athlete is an amazing success story by any standard, but for a kid who had his life literally crumble around him and moved to America without knowing a word of English, his is a story that surpasses every sports cliché you've ever heard.

Before this week, Skal hadn't been back to Port-Au-Prince since moving to Memphis in 2010. This week, with the help of the NBA and the Kings, he's back in his home country for the first annual Camp S.K.A.L. (Skills, Knowledge, and Life) to be a beacon of hope for a country that still hasn't recovered. In addition to his inaugural skills camp, Skal also donated the country's first heartbeat detection machine that will allow rescue teams to find people trapped in rubble after a natural disaster.

The Kings social media team has been putting out great videos of Skal's trip back to Haiti. If you're interested in following along and seeing more of his trip as he visits his old neighborhood and reunites with childhood friends, check out http://www.nba.com/kings/skal-returns-haiti.

{**Reminder, today is the last day for everyone to complete and submit your survey for Great Place To Work. Based on the analytics, 25 of the 30 of us have submitted the survey so if you aren't sure if you completed it yet (there are so many I've been asking you guys to do lately and I know they all get confusing) or if you need a new survey sent to you, let me know. Thank you! -Cassidy}

As I turn 24 on Sunday, getting older seems to be the only thing on my mind. The main thing I love about birthdays is all the people you reconnect with! Just a reminder to reach out to family, friends and loved ones that you don’t always get to talk to. Life gets so busy but it’s the relationships you build that will light your way in dark times. Even if it’s not their birthday! You can always just say hi!

Funny birthday fact…

“The most common birth date of the year is the 5^th of October which falls 9 months after New Years Eve.”

**Before you panic.....no, you don't have to be an expert at using chopsticks to understand this post.

I remember that when I was little, there were times where my siblings and I would fight over things from refusing to share food to who gets to be player 1 in Mario Kart. One time when we were fighting over who gets the bigger cup of soda at the dining table, my dad taught us a simple but valuable lesson about the importance of unity and teamwork. He explained that it is very easy to break a single chopstick with your hands, however, when you put a bunch of them together, they are essentially unbreakable.

Here at SlideBelts, I see teamwork being practiced day in and day out whether it is helping with our successful Reg CF campaign, prepping for our next trade show or just simply keeping each other in the loop. Without the help coming from everyone, each of these tasks could easily break us like a single chopstick, but together, even the impossible can be achieved! Thank you for being awesome, TEAM!