‘It means a lot’: Portland Trail Blazers make a fun stop in La Pine to kick off 9th Rip City Rally

LA PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Portland Trail Blazers along with Moda Health are traveling throughout Southern Oregon to share a common love for basketball, and a joint mission to promote healthy, active lifestyles.

Their first stop, much to the joy of Karen Miller, the executive director of the La Pine Park and Rec District, was in La Pine on Monday.

“I am very excited!” Miller said. "I'm trying to refrain from jumping up and down, because I'm a big kid at heart. So bringing something like this to this small community means a lot.”

The rally in La Pine included some of Trail Blazers' broadcast team members, their mascot Blaze, and members of the Blazer Dancers

Michael Holton is the radio and TV analyst for the Blazers. He touched on how nice it is for him to connect with the community.

“With the cameras off and the ball not bouncing," he said, "and just connect with people and discuss who they are, where they're trying to get to, how how we're able to do the things that we do -- not just individually, but collectively as an organization to promote goal-setting in youth, and healthy lifestyles and people in general is just as fun, and something I look forward to.”

Travis Demers, the radio play-by-play announcer for Portland, said it's all about connecting with the fans.

“We don't get to do what we do without fans,” Demer said. “And who knows, maybe someone coming up, maybe a 10-, 11-year-old kid will get inspired -- and some day, they are there where we are.”

La Pine has been asking for the Blazers to come for a few years and they clearly enjoyed being the first stop on this year's tour.