Prohibiting kids from involvement in sports due to the cost of equipment would be tragic and borderline senseless. This has served as motivation to start Athletes with Influence, with the primary goal being to create a fund from which youth sports teams in underprivileged areas can apply for grants to cover the costs of expensive athletic equipment.

 

 

In addition, Union College is fortunate enough to regularly obtain new equipment, especially for our division one programs. This can free up a ton of lightly-used equipment each year that will be repurposed and donated to local youth sports programs. Besides the obvious benefits, such as reducing the number of kids held out of sports due to cost, Athletes with Influence would also serve as a humanitarian way to protect the environment by keeping used equipment out of landfills. Not only will Athletes with Influence support the development of kids in local low-income communities, but it will help protect the earth while doing it.

 

 

A significant barrier to involvement in sports can be the cost of equipment. Items such as shoulder pads, helmets, or even a hockey or lacrosse stick will run upwards of two hundred dollars each, which is just the beginning of the expenses. This being said, the importance of a team environment during adolescence is immeasurably valuable when it comes to the attainment of non-cognitive skills such as self-discipline, organization, confidence, and of course, teamwork. These non-cognitive skills are arguably just as valuable as cognitive ones, considering the statistics regarding job applicants who’ve obtained a high school diploma versus those with a GED (general education development). Those statistics show that a high school diploma holds far more merit in the real world, as the non-cognitive skills developed through everyday interactions provide great value. The development of these non-cognitive skills is accelerated through involvement in athletics, with almost every sport involving individuals who work together towards a common goal.