Number of Participants: 30
Hours Donated: 15
Value of Time Served: $3,803
Event Amount Raised: $1,000
Event Type: Children & Youth
Sport: Schools
School: Northville High School
Date: June 3, 2022
Location:
Northville High School
3rd Street, Northville
NY
About:
This amazing community service project is something that our high school athletes at Northville Central School created and implemented this spring. The project was uniquely named ‘Operation Bring Sports Home’ and the goal was to raise money to buy sporting equipment for elementary age students in need within our district. The high school students who created this project felt as though the time we all spent at home during quarantine due to the pandemic may have been utilized better if all students had access to sports equipment at their own homes. They realized that not all students and families may be able to afford such equipment. With a lot of younger students focused on the use of technology and video games, the high school students felt it was very important to try to promote playing sports at home and this project will hopefully encourage more of our elementary age students to participate in sports at home and outside of school. The students wrote letters to various area businesses and local sporting goods stores to ask for donations and they successfully raised over $1,000 for sporting equipment. While this may not seem like a lot, for a small school like Northville that typically graduates between 30 and 40 students, this was a very successful project that will have a lasting impact on so many elementary school students in our district. Many of these same student-athletes volunteered time earlier in the school year to help coordinate our annual Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-Off Classic. This event helped to raise $3,515.50 for Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society. It is sometimes difficult in a small school to have a large scale impact when you only have a limited number of students but this group of high school student-athletes were able to have a huge impact on our school community by the work they completed as part of the ‘Operation Bring Sports Home’ project.
I believe the impact this project had on our school community is astounding and is something that should be considered for the NYSPHSAA Community Service Challenge.
I have attached a sample letter that students wrote and sent out to various area businesses and also a photo of the group of student-athletes who participated in this project as members of Northville’s Varsity Club and Girls’ Athletic Association (with some of the donated equipment).
We had approximately 30 Varsity student-athletes participate as part of their membership in our Varsity Club and Girls’ Athletic Association. It is difficult to put an exact number on the amount of hours they volunteered because they all played a different role in the project. Some were responsible for writing the letters, while others were responsible for the coordination of the money and purchasing the equipment. The last step will be the distribution of the equipment over the next few weeks. I