On August 22, 2019, Sam Waisbren, a basketball player, died in a tragic elevator accident, which later inspired the creation of the Sam Waisbren Memorial Basketball Program.
Born on April 13, 1989, Sam Waisbren grew up in Fox Point, Wisconsin, and attended Nicolet High School.
According to his family and community, when he was about 9 years old, his father, Dr. Charles Waisbren, started a youth basketball team at the Northcott Community Center in an underserved neighborhood.
Sam played on that team for many years and participated in weekly tournaments across Wisconsin.
Following his basketball journey, his team won the state AAU championship in 2003.
Sam Waisbren Memorial Basketball Program Now Moves Beyond Basketball!
Following Sam’s passing in 2019, his family, especially his father, created the Memorial program to honor Sam’s memory by recreating something that shaped him as a child.
Sam spent many of his formative years playing on a youth basketball team his father coached in underserved neighborhoods.
While his father started the program before Sam’s death, the family later expanded and built it with funds raised on Sam’s GoFundMe page.
It was Sam’s brother, Harry Waisbren, who started the GoFundMe page, the first step in building this program.
Following the launch of the program and the start of fundraising, Sam’s brother, in an interview, said;
Our father started a youth basketball team in an impacted community when Sam was 9. For the next seven years, Sam and his teammates played weekly tournaments throughout Wisconsin. There is no legacy Sam would have loved more than his passing leading to revitalized support for this kind of constructive after-school program.
The core mission of this memorial program is “beyond basketball.” They strongly emphasize education, particularly literacy, alongside sports.
As of now, the program runs a team for 4th‑grade boys, called the Silver Spring All Stars. Practices are twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:30 p.m., at the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center.
Through the program, children not only build basketball skills but also strengthen their reading, critical thinking, and sense of community.
The Waisbren family believes the program is one of the ways to honor Sam by creating for others what was so meaningful for him.
