Helping at-risk kids through Lax

Hi!  My name is Samantha.  I am a middle-school student in Ridgewood, NJ and a lacrosse goalie for Ridgewood Lacrosse and Building Blocks Lacrosse. 

I have been invited to be a part of a U.S. middle and high school girls’ team that will be traveling to Eastern Europe and the Middle East over winter break, as part of a humanitarian U.S. outreach program to underprivileged girls living in high-risk parts of the world.  Young girls in those at-risk areas often do not have opportunities to play sports, or other opportunities that we take for granted here in the U.S.  The goal of our trip is to introduce young girls in those communities to lacrosse, teach them the sport, provide them with lacrosse equipment that they otherwise could not afford, and encourage them to play lacrosse instead of giving in to drugs, violence, or other things that afflict young girls living in those parts of the world.  We will be doing this work in conjunction with the Serbian and Israeli adult women’s national lacrosse teams.  As a thank you for our work, at the end of the trip the Serbian and Israeli teams have arranged for us to play a couple of exhibition games in Belgrade against some adult European women’s national teams.

Evidence and studies have shown that youth engaged in organized sports are far less likely to participate in criminal activities, achieve better grades in school and are more likely to graduate, and are less likely to smoke.  These statistics are more pronounced among girls and at-risk youths, like those who we will be visiting.  Girls who play sports have even been found to be less likely to develop breast cancer and other female-specific diseases.

I would be extremely grateful if you would help me so that I can participate in this outreach program.  Any amount will be greatly appreciated.  All donations are Tax Deductible.  Thanks for your support!