The Sports Drive is organized and conducted by local junior high school students.
Students from Laguna Blanca, Montecito Union, Cold Spring, Marymount, Crane, Bishop, El Montecito, and Santa Barbara Middle School are gathering new and gently used sports equipment and clothing for the Second Annual Sports Drive.
This Sports Drive is organized by teenagers with the goal of giving sports equipment and clothing to over 750 kids-in-need in the Santa Barbara community and increasing membership and participation at the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club. The event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 5, 2011 from 9-11 a.m.
The yearly event is planned, coordinated and operated by Santa Barbara High School student Matt Wagonhurst and 16 founding members. The team of young philanthropists held their first Sports Drive on April 10, 2010 at the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club after having previously collected gently-used and new sports equipment and clothing. Truckloads and endless boxes filled the gym at the Boys & Girls Club. Sports Drive members are asking the families in their school districts for donations but they hope to increase their reach to new families and businesses to help boost donations.
Steve Yapp, Tri-Counties PODS owner, will be lending a helping hand to the Sports Drive this year by donating several PODS to the cause. PODS will be stationed at various school locations as collections points for the drive. Donations will be accepted through February. The computer support professionals at Make it Work is sponsoring the Sports Drive by providing funding for the event and tech support for students designing the website. Also participating in the event is Kim Kjar, Athletic Director of the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club.
Santa Barbara Sports Drive is looking for the following items: balls, bats, gloves, helmets, surfboards, boogie boards, skateboards, bikes, rackets, jerseys, sport shirts, shorts, shoes, shin guards and other equipment in good condition in all styles and sizes.
Once donations are collected and organized, tickets to the event will be distributed to agencies that support children in need, such as the Transition House, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, the Boys & Girls Club.
In addition, other local agencies help us identify kids in need throughout our community so we have a large number kids attending the event. For more information about Sports Drive, visit Facebook.com/sbsportsdrive.
Kudos to Matt and all of the other awesome young people working to put this together!