No. 16 Vol. 1
www.mypaperonline.com
PHO pres Lega New
January 2018
Local Siblings Raise Money For Teams For Kids Through Non-Profit
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By Jason Cohen local non-profit organization recently collected $2,300 that will help purchase equipment and apparel for children from homeless and low-income families to participate in sports. In the past three years, AT&T has raised more than $5,500 for Teams For Kids, the non-profit started by Long Valley resident Abby Bauer in 2014, when she was a sophomore in high school. Bauer, a sophomore at Stanford University, has been volunteering at Homeless Solutions, a homeless shelter and transitional housing facility in Morristown, for the past five years, running a program for the children at the shelter. As a volunteer working with kids, she often played sports with them, but soon realized most of them could not afford the equipment or apparel needed to play recreationally. When parents barely have enough money for food and bills, sports is a luxury. Since the organization’s inception, it has awarded two grants of $2,500 to Homeless Solutions, Inc. in Morristown and Eva’s Village in Paterson to cover the costs of team registration and sports equipment and apparel for the children at these shelters. The non-profit helps cover the cost of registration fees, equipment and sports team apparel. She also created a partnership with the city of Newark by giving $5,000 to support
kids playing recreational sports. In fact, last year it partnered with the Chester Lions Club to provide $3,000 in scholarship money to Newark High School soccer players. Her brother, Andrew Bauer, is 16-yearsold and is a junior at West Morris Central High School in Chester. Bauer explained that his sister starting Team For Kids has changed his perspective on life. “Personally, not once did I ever think that because of family finances there might be kids missing from the soccer field, ballfield, from the ice or from the courts,” he said. “I have since learned otherwise. That is why I got involved with Teams For Kids, and promised Abby that I would make sure that the organization continued to help underprivileged kids when she left for college.” With his sister off at college, he felt it was his responsibility to continue to carry on her message. Therefore, he established the High School Student Athlete Ambassador Program on behalf of Teams For Kids. There
are 25 student ambassadors participating from 15 high schools in six different counties. Each ambassador has been provided with a fundraising kit to get started, containing information about Teams For Kids, wristbands, water bottles, helmet decals and donation boxes. “The purpose of the program is to spread the word about the problem, that there are kids missing from the game because they cannot afford to play, and to meet and work together over the next year to come up with a game plan - fundraising ideas - that can be shared with and executed by the Ambassadors and their teams and students at their schools to help to bring children of New Jersey’s working poor off of the sidelines and into the game,” Bauer explained. Bauer recalled how last year he met with students at the Great Oaks Charter Legacy School in Newark, where the majority of the students qualify to receive continued on page 2