The Finale!! The week we returned from spring break was go time. We did a final collection of equipment Wednesday, April 13th, which we unfortunately weren't able to get pictures of because it was pouring rain so we had to be quick🌧🙁 We collected several items and transported our final collection to the rather large collection pile in Alaina's garage. On Friday, I loaded the items I had into my car to be ready for the set-up bright and early the next morning. We decided to meet at 8 AM the next morning to have a comfortable time of 2 hours to set up before the swap started at 10 AM. Our parents both came to kindly lend a helping hand. We hauled four tables and some chairs out from the high school to the parking lot of the naditorium, and the sports swap came to life! The tables were filled with shoes, clothes, helmets, gloves, bags, and more. Buckets of sports balls and lines of bats lines the tables for visitors to dig through. We took some pictures to promote the swap on Facebook and twitter, and awaited the start time of 10AM. Final Setup! The Sports Swap was a huge success! We had people show up right at 10AM, looking for items for their upcoming sports seasons. Many people came back to drop off unwanted items they had, which other community members could then take. We got a little worried about halfway through, as it looked like we had more items than we started with since so many people wanted to get rid of unwanted items. Throughout the swap, we collected donations to donate to the Eyerman family for Andrew Eyerman, who is currently fighting leukemia. Around 11AM, we had an incredible surprise. A man stopped by the swap and explained to us that he was planning to start up a sports equipment resell business, and he wanted to know if we were interested in allowing him to buy all the leftover equipment we had when the swap was over. We were originally planning on donating leftover equipment to Goodwill, but we thought this was a much better option, and we could donate the profit to the Eyerman family. He gave us his phone number to call when the swap was over, and we were so excited! People continued to flow in until we cut the swap off around 1. Then the man came and loaded everything left over into his vehicle for $250! It was such an incredible experience to get to see community members happy to find what they needed and talk with them about how sorts equipment is so hard to find. We received an outpouring amount of support, and we are so so thankful that so many people enjoyed it! Facebook Comments! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who supported the swap and to Mr. Large for providing us with the opportunity to execute this project! Thank you for following along the Sports Swap journey!
0 Comments
So Much Has Happened! After a slow start, Alaina and I got to thinking about how we could get the word out about the sports swap, since it hadn't seemed to get to many people yet. To begin, I took to Facebook and made a post in my neighborhood group offering to come pick up items from anyone wanting to donate equipment. Residents in my neighborhood were very generous. I received a couple loads of equipment dropped off at my doorstep, as well as a $50 donation to buy brand new equipment with. I then contacted a family friend that lives in Stone Crossing, a large neighborhood across from mine, asking her to post my post on their Facebook group. I got one large donation of baseball uniforms in great condition (Nike, Adidas, etc.), as well as some football padding. It was great to see items start coming in and the generosity of the community. Neighborhood Donations!! Next, we were pleasantly surprised by the NPHS donation box! During a fire drill, Alaina noticed that our school's donation box was filled, and she called me screaming with excitement. The next day, we went downstairs to collect the items and transport them to her car. Her trunk was filled with equipment! NPHS Donations!! After Alaina and I saw what getting the word out can do, I took to the New Palestine Community Facebook group page to get people educated on the Sports Swap. Almost immediately, a flood of interest, excitement, and questions rolled in. We were so excited that our community was so interested in our project! Several people commented and messaged me saying they were planning to take a trip to one of the surrounding schools to drop off donations! Expanding Alaina and I finally coordinated additional donation box locations at Upward/United Methodist Church, and at the Boys and Girls Club in Greenfield. We had the donation box all ready to bring to Upward, but the Boys and Girls Club box had to be located outside, in a weather sturdy bin, meaning we needed to redesign our collection box. Luckily, Alaina had a spare trashcan that we could use, so we got together and cleaned out out, which wasn't the most fun thing to do🙃 After we had a clean bin to decorate, we headed to Upward first to drop off their box, then travelled to Greenfield to set up the bin at the Boys and Girls Club, fingers crossed it withstands the weather🤞 Drop off time!
A Few Items... The last few weeks of the Sports Swap have been a little slow. Alaina and I were struggling to find a time to travel to every school for the first item pick up, as we had weird school schedules with snow days and weren't always both able to be at school during the long class period. After a couple weeks of frustration, we finally found a time to go to all the schools for the first pick up. As we walked into the first 3 schools and found empty boxes, we were a little worried and frustrated that the word hadn't gotten out about our project. We walked into New Palestine Intermediate expecting to find nothing, but we were pleasantly surprised by a full box! A bat, gloves, several shoes/cleats, and bags had been donated, and the front desk receptionist said people were curious as to when the swap day is. We were so excited that we at least got a little participation :) We had been waiting to pick a definitive swap day until we had an idea on how many item we would have and what dat would fall best in terms of sporting seasons going on, and we plan to talk to Mr. Cooper about this soon and hopefully pick an official date. Picking up some items! An issue...
After collecting these items, we decided to reach out to sporting and fitness facilities in our surrounding area to as to set up a collection box at their facility. We contacted the YMCA, Hancock Wellness Center, Upward, and the Boys and Girls Club. So far, we have received 2 responses saying they are already serving as a collection center for a group doing the exact same project :(( Alaina and I had no idea anyone was doing this project already prior to our start of the project. This introduces an interesting obstacle, as we will now likely have to stick to schools and friends/family for donations. I plan to put a post on my neighborhood facebook page to hopefully get some donations, and we also plan to have Mr. Large send out a post on the New Palestine Community Facebook page once we figure out how we will collect the items from people wanting to donate. We are hopeful for a successful future with this project, and we are eager to find our way around some obstacles we've encountered early on. 2nd Semester is Here! As Alaina and I started diving into our last semester of high school, we wanted to curate a creative and unique project. After about a week of brainstorming, we landed on the perfect idea: The New Palestine Sports Swap. The goal of this project is to provide a way for people in need of sports equipment to swap unwanted equipment for needed items. We will spend the next couple months collecting unwanted sports equipment in preparation for a “sports swap” day, in which community members will be able to bring in equipment they have and swap it for items we have collected. We hope this will provide a way for athletes in need of equipment to get the resources they need. Logistics To get the word out and make our sports swap successful, we will:
To conduct this Sports Swap, we will need:
In terms of the timeline for this project, we plan to collect items from donation centers weekly until April/March. We plan to have the first swap before Little League starts, at the beginning of March, and have a second swap at the end of April. After both swaps are complete, we plan to donate leftover items to the boys and girls club, Wellness Center, and YMCA. Getting Started! Alaina and I hopped right into making flyers as soon as we decided on the Sports Swap, because we knew in order for it to be successful, we need to get the word out in every way possible. On the flyers, we included a brief description of what we are collecting and provided examples of items around the border. We printed several of these to post around NPHS, NPE, BWE, SCE, NPI, and NPJH. We sent out an email to each school's principal, explaining the project and asking if we could set up a sports equipment collection bin in the front office of their school, in which we will come collect every other week. We also included the flyer and asked for it to be included in their newsletter. They were all extremely helpful and agreed! We were so excited to be getting so much planning done very quickly, but that also meant we had a lot of work to do. Time to Get to Work!
Initially, with our busy schedules and us both being in winter sports right now, Alaina and I were struggling to find a time that would work for us to go to every school. We found that leaving every other Wednesday during homeroom would work perfect for us to travel to each school to drop off boxes and then collect items every other week. Our next task was to find collection boxes. After contacting my dad, we were so thankful that he was willing to donate 10 very sturdy boxes he uses at work to our project. We then designed a sign to put on the front of the boxes and printed 10 of them on larger posters, thanks to Mr. Large :) The following Wednesday, I loaded up all of the boxes and posters into my car, and we headed to each of the schools, assembling the boxes in the parking lots. While at each school, we posted about 5 flyers around the hallways to catch students' attention. We felt an extreme sense of relief after getting all of the boxes dropped off, and we are so excited for the first item pickup! |
AuthorHello, my name is Kennedy Garrett, and I am a senior at New Palestine High School. I can't wait to take you along the journey of the New Palestine Sports Swap! |