- November 5, 2024
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Indian Trails Middle School seventh-grader Francisco Cruz loves playing soccer through a local competitive league. But some of his friends can’t afford to pay the about $1,000 season cost.
Twelve students at Indian Trails Middle School are on a mission to assist with their Community Problem Solvers group “Save Our Sports.”
“We’re trying to help kids in our community, in Flagler County, who want to play sports, but can’t due to funding, lack of equipment, whatever the cause may be,” seventh-grader Paisley Armstrong said. “We want to help them to achieve their goals so that they can play the sports that they want.
In the fall, the group polled ITMS students to see how big of a problem this is in their own school. About 85% of the students at ITMS participated in the survey, and 14.8% said they could not join sports activities because of a lack of money or equipment.
“We found out that a lot of kids actually can’t play sports. They don’t have enough money,” seventh-grader Francisco Cruz said. “So, we started an equipment drive. We have a little basket in our classroom. We already have some equipment.”
While most of the equipment collected so far has been from group members, their families and people at ITMS, the group is working to make this issue known around the community.
Save Our Sports reached out to Palm Coast Little League President Patrick Johnan to arrange a way for families who need help to get season discounts depending on income.
Eighth-grader Isabella Whiston said a few of her brother’s little league teammates are benefiting from this offer.
ITMS held a Breakfast with Santa fundraiser in December where about 100 people attended for $5 per person. The profits were split between all of ITMS’ Future Problem Solver groups.
The next step for Save Our Sports will be to reach out to other schools in Flagler County.
“We’re going to connect with all the schools to see if there are kids who can’t afford sports, and take a survey to see how many kids there are so we can get them the equipment they need,” seventh-grader Lexis Angel said.
Group members are also contacting local businesses and are in the process of filling out grant paperwork to send to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“We try to be pretty optimistic,” Armstrong said. “Hopefully, we’ll get something back. And we have been pretty fortunate with people getting back to us and collaborating with people. I feel like we’re making some progress slowly.”
The group recently heard back from the Daytona Tortugas, the single-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. The team offered to host a tour later this spring for students to participate in for $5 each.
“I love helping little kids because they’re just so fun,” Angel said. “Seeing little kids grow up and play sports, knowing that we helped them, that makes me really happy.”
Save Our Sports is looking for new and used equipment donations from community members. Contact the group at [email protected].
