by Jillian Stringer

Spring is on its way — and for a lot of children and adolescents that means playing team sports with their friends and peers. Baseball and softball, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, golf, football, hockey, field hockey, volleyball, racquet sports… and so on. While there may be numerous options for some to play sports, many children are not given the opportunity to benefit from the mental and physical aspects of youth sports participation because the equipment is not affordable. Covid has widened this spread.

Leveling the Playing Field, a non-profit organization, was founded to provide sporting equipment to schools and programs serving low-income communities through donations of used and excess sporting equipment. These donations allow programs to allocate funds saved by lowering registration fees, expanding their scholarship programs, enhancing their existing athletic program, and/or developing new ones.

They’re currently running a donation campaign and looking for neighbors to donate any unwanted (new or gently used) sports equipment to youth in our area.

Please drop-off your used and new sports equipment in the bin located at 4121 8th Street NW (until March 27th).

Thank you for your generosity in supporting youth sports for everyone in our community!

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Creating a level playing field for all kids equally #GivingTuesday

Leveling the Playing Field has been collecting new and gently-used sports and playground equipment to donate to underprivileged groups, community programs, and schools. They have been able to collect over $6.5 million in equipment to donate to youth organizations, after-school programs, schools, and sports leagues, and have impacted over 950 programs in the DMV helping to bridge the gap for the growing inequality between those that can afford to play sports and those that cannot. They are making sure no child is left on the sideline no matter what their family’s economic situation may be.