Gannon nears three decades of impact with AUS Basketball Championships

Longtime volunteer Gannon set out to create opportunities for all

(HALIFAX, N.S.) - His name is Lou Gannon, but you can call him Mr. Lou.

Gannon has served as an integral part of the AUS Basketball Championships Organizing Committee for 29 years, and while many things about the event have changed in that time, his role has not. Gannon oversees the kids who volunteer to do a variety of jobs, including handing out towels, stocking locker rooms, wiping the floor down and putting programs on the seats to name just a few.

“It’s always been such a huge part of my life. I’m a basketball fanatic,” said Gannon, who can be found most nights at the Scotiabank Centre working as an usher. “If I’m healthy, I’ll be there.”

Phil Currie, President and CEO as well as the championship chair has worked with Lou for 25 years and says Lou will always have a home on the organizing committee.

“Lou has a deep commitment to the AUS Basketball Championships and the work it takes to put it on every year”, said Currie. “Lou had diversity in mind when he took on the role and to this day has a diverse group of young people who look after the participating teams. It is admirable to witness his genuine care and concern for his team of youth volunteers as well as his desire to instill in them the principles of working hard, following the rules and staying on a schedule. They also admire him, leaving with pride and a sense of purpose. Lou’s contributions go well beyond the tasks at hand. I am proud to call him a friend.”

Gannon joined the team all those years ago when he noticed that none of the young basketball players that he coached and mentored while working for the YMCA were not taking part, so he set out to fix that.

When he did, it wasn’t just about just about bringing in kids of different races or kids from underserved communities. It was about creating opportunities.

“I was allowed to pick the kids that I wanted on the team, and I put some criteria in place that the kids had to meet regarding the steps they were taking towards their education,” said Gannon, who speaks with pride about the kids who have passed through over the years. “We felt that was an important step back then, and even now.”

It’s not the first organization that Gannon has made a significant impact on.

He had a 27-year career with the YMCA, in which he served as Director of the Community Y and later was appointed CEO of the Charlottetown YMCA—becoming the first African Nova Scotian to hold such a position.

Later in life, Lou came out of retirement to serve as Manager of the North Preston Community Centre, and served as Interim Executive Director of the Black Cultural Centre for three years.

For the last 20 years, he has served as President of the African Nova Scotian Music Association (ANSMA). Music, like basketball, has long been one of Gannon’s passions and he can often be heard praising the work and promoting the work of black artists from the province.

“He’s one of the most respected people in so many aspects of the black community – in business, in music, in sports,” said Terry Dixon, the Vice-President of ANSMA, who Gannon brought into the fold this year to help with the volunteers. When Lou’s name is mentioned, it’s an automatic attention getter. . . When Lou’s name is mentioned, it is very much respected and people will respond.”

When Gannon asked Dixon to help out, it was an easy yes.

“Anything that Lou is involved in, I will support him or put in the time it takes to make sure it’s a success,” said Dixon. “It’s automatic. He’s a friend, he’s family and he’s also a mentor.”

Gannon’s program has been responsible for giving many kids, past and present, their very first job. And like any other job, it comes with responsibilities.

“We instill in them that they’re going to have fun and get some things that other kids don’t have, but the bottom line is this is work,” he said. “It’s not hard work and your hands aren’t going to get dirty, but it’s still work, so come have some fun with us.”

Gannon holds up a piece of paper showing the job description he has laid out for each member of his team. Also on that piece of paper is the rules they must abide by. Rules that must be taken seriously.

“We guarantee their parents that they will have enough to eat, as there is plenty of food and drink to go around. But what they can’t do is go and give it to their friends in the crowd,” he explained. “This is what gets you warned. I tell them that this is your job. And, I have taken people’s lanyards away from them on the second day because they were messing around.”

Like Gannon’s presence at the tournament, another constant is what each new kid ends up calling him by the end of the weekend – Mr. Lou. It’s a name that stuck when Gannon worked in North Preston.

Mr. Lou, yes. Lou, sure. But never Mr. Gannon.

“Mr. Gannon is my dad and he set a pretty high standard. I’m still trying to climb that pedestal, so Mr. Lou started,” he explained. “Mr. Lou this, Mr. Lou that. I even have people way older than me calling me Mr. Lou.”

Gannon recently celebrated a birthday but getting him to divulge how many candles were on the cake was not going to happen.

When told that next year will be his 30^th with the AUS Basketball Championships, Gannon laughed and shrugged his shoulders. Dixon, sitting beside him, grinned.

Instead of talking about whether this year will be his last or if he’ll end on the round number that is 30, Gannon chooses instead to talk about the kids who have passed through his program. The ones who come back year after year, he says, get promoted to the ‘better’ or ‘cooler’ jobs.

The ones who choose not to are left with a simple message.

“When I call them to see if they are interested again and they say no, I say: ‘Well, I thank you for the past. If you see me on the street some time, make sure you say hi to Mr. Lou.’”