My name is Coach Chris Glasgow. I have been coaching these special group of young men since they were seven and eight years old. They are now 12 and 13 years old. In the neighborhood that these young men come from their is a lot of gang violence and recruitment for gang members. I have been amazed that our team has mostly stayed together with the limited funding we have for our football program. Before my son wanted to play football I had no idea how to coach or any desire to be a Coach. Like any other parent I use to take my son and stand on the side watching them practice. One evening one of the Coaches asked me if I wanted to volunteer as a Coach, since I was always at practice. I saw this as an opportunity to spend time with my sons, each on a different team for the organization.
At first I was just your basic helping out dad but after awhile I really started getting into coaching the kids and realized it was my responsibility as a coach and father figure, to some of them, to impact how these kids grew into young men. I am a firm believer that "it takes A Village to Raise a Child". I have watched these young men mature and gain confidence in themselves as well as learning how to work with others for a common goal. These young men had endured years of losing until they turned the corner about 5 years ago and began a winning tradition in our Bronx based community sports organization.
For the last 4 years our team has been invited to the National Youth Football Championships held in Florida. The same youth championship games that have been recently featured on ESPN. We would be the first team in our Organizations 10 years of existence to make the trip to Florida and represent our community in the Bronx. We have lost many of our players who played for our organization to the allure of street life. Even with our success we have not been able to translate the wins into large group of kids playing football and leaving the gang and street life alone. I believe with this kind of exposure on a National stage giving us a chance to tell our story, we can get many more children and their parents involved in our community based organizations. That would give our kids some of the tools needed to be a success in any arena whether it be in school, business or life in general.
With your contributions you would be fulfilling these 16 young men dreams as well as helping a community realize that through sports and community based organizations that children can develop the confidence and self assurance to rely on positive influences then the glamorization of gangs and street life. For these 16 young men the memory of going to the National Youth Football Championships in Florida would last a life time. Thank You for your help in Making Their Dream Come True........
What We Need & What You Get
We have a total of 16 young men that would make the trip to Florida for the National Youth Football Championship. Though our organization has been fundraising all year long much of the funds generated were to keep up with the organization expenses. This team would be the first team to go to Florida to represent our organization as well as our community. So far, the combined efforts of the parents/children selling candies and the selling of our tee shirts we have raised 55% of the monies needed to make our children and the organizations Dream Come True!
Here is a Breakdown of Cost per Child for 7 days (December 9-15) :
Airfare (round-trip) per child - $197 + $32(taxes) = $229
Hotel Accommodations per Child (4 in a room) - $175
Food allotment per child - $120
Ground Transportation per child - $100
Total per child for 7 days - $624
Grand Total for 16 members of the Team - $9984
We have raised approx. $5300
If we fall short of our campaign goal all of the proceeds that have been raised will go towards the expenses for the trip. Any amount of money would help in reducing the young men expenses.
The Impact
By contributing to our cause you will not only make the dreams of 16 young men, our organization and the community we represent come true but you will help in the reshaping of the ideology within the community to not accept things as status quo involving the gang violence, obesity and lack of programs for our youth. We have launched similar projects before for the betterment of our community. So far, we have seen success in gaining the trust of our community and gaining the ear of our political representation. But we all know that you need funding to get any project really going and that is where we have hit a brick wall. Hopefully, through the success of this campaign we can begin to put some monies behind the ideas we have developed that would help the youth in our area develop into successful young men and women. Their is nothing better then seeing young men and women feel good about their accomplishments and a community that rallied around them. For that we want to THANK YOU.
Other Ways You Can Help
- We ask that you please tell others about our cause to send these Young Men to Florida.
- Please use the Indiegogo share tools on this site.
THANK YOU FROM THE NORTH BRONX COWBOYS JR. MIDGET TEAM