Number of Participants: 60
Hours Donated: 4
Value of Time Served: $2,028
Event Type: Health & Medicine
Sport: Badminton
School: Paul D Schreiber Senior High School
Date: May 5, 2025
Location:
Port Washington
NY, USA
About:
As part of their “Senior Experience” — a graduation requirement designed to encourage students to give back to their community — Julie and I, both three-year members of our school’s Varsity Badminton Team, decided to turn our shared passion into something meaningful: a schoolwide badminton tournament.
After years of helping our coach during gym classes and assisting with smaller tournaments, we wanted to create something bigger — an event that would bring students together, promote the sport we love, and make a difference.
With careful planning over several months, we organized a tournament with about 60 participants, hosting both singles and doubles matches. We advertised through school morning announcements and flyers, and secured the green light from our athletic advisor. Our efforts paid off with a fun, competitive, and community-centered event.
But the tournament wasn’t just about sport. We wanted it to stand for something more — so we used it as a chance to raise funds for breast cancer research in honor of Coach J, a breast cancer survivor and a source of inspiration for us all. By selling snacks during the tournament, we were proud to raise nearly $150 for the cause.
Coach J’s gym classes even helped us test the event format, and on tournament day, we ran singles matches on one court and round-robin doubles games on the others — leading to bracket-style playoffs for the final winners. It was a fantastic way to bring people of all skill levels into the game.
The event was more than we hoped for — students had a blast, many reached out afterward to share how much fun they had, and some even asked Coach J what it would take to start a boys’ badminton team at the school. That kind of response made all our planning and hard work worth it.
We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who participated, supported, and helped make this event such a success. We’re proud to have honored Coach J, shared our love for badminton, and hopefully inspired a few new players along the way.
