A Haitian athlete reaches out.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: Edge of Sports - Olden Polynice

If you've ever played hoops on a ninety-four-foot regulation court, you know that it's not a task for the timid. Now imagine doing it without a drop of food in your stomach for days on end. That's what NBA player Olden Polynice did back in 1993, losing eight pounds of muscle in the process.

Why did he do it? Simple. Olden is Haitian. Actually he is more than Haitian. He is "an activist for Haiti until the day I die ... whether it's chic or not." Olden stopped eating in protest because HIV-positive Haitian refugees were being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay on orders from Bill Clinton. The pre-Internet sports media, dominated by old-timers disgusted with this "political posturing," criticized Olden for putting himself ahead of the team. But Olden saw a greater cause: justice for his home, the poorest country in the hemisphere.

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Now we all share his passion. Olden's deep love of Haiti--the only country ever founded by self-emancipated slaves--has collided with the reality of one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in modern times. As many as 200,000 people may have died, and no one with an ounce of Haitian heritage hasn't been intimately affected.

W hen the quake struck, Olden was at a funeral in California, and when the news came through, he couldn't believe his ears.

"I thought first that it was a joke," he says. "Earthquake? In Haiti? Haiti doesn't have earthquakes! We have everything else, but not earthquakes!"

Then he immediately thought about his family members there.

"We got my father out of Port-au-Prince," he says. "He was hurt but he's good. He's alive. Nothing major. But we know that we've lost two cousins. The roof of their house fell on them. We are waiting to hear from others. We've just heard nothing."

Olden is trying to raise...