Participation in sports serves as an invaluable childhood experience—it has proven to be beneficial for physical, emotional, and social development. Unfortunately, due to the skyrocketing prices of youth sports and equipment, the experience has become inaccessible to countless children throughout the country. This prevents many children from having the same athletic opportunities, emotional outlets, and social windows as other children.
Noticing this disparity, Youth Ambassador Kerri Kunz partnered with Leveling The Playing Field, a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes new and unused sports equipment to underprivileged youth, in an attempt to help make sports more accessible to many children and families who would otherwise be unable to afford it.
She coordinated with her school and local soccer clubs—she made and distributed flyers, and set up boxes at her school, community buildings, and sports facilities. After generous donations (many of which were new) from classmates, teachers, family, friends, and even strangers, the drive was completed on June 14th. Then, Leveling The Playing Field picked up the collected equipment and will proceed to distribute it across the country to the youth who need it most.
She would like to thank everyone who made the drive possible and successful, particularly her family, soccer coach, school’s athletic director, and everyone who donated.
Written by 2021 HLFYA Kerri Kunz
