Heath MS Track & Field and Cross country Uniforms

Edit: I have lowered the goal to reflect cash donations we received. We are still matching any donation from now until the 8th of February

Friends and Family,

I am reaching out to you in an effort to receive support for our middle school Track & Field team at Heath Middle school. Last school year, 2022-2023, I had the great pleasure of becoming the Track & Field coach for Heath. It was truly a transformative experience that allowed me to connect and bond with our scholar athletes and allow them to achieve their athletic goals.

We had an amazing team laden with talented scholar athletes that trained all season to achieve their goals. While I would have been proud of them regardless of how the season turned out I was overjoyed when our girls team won first place at the City championship and our boys team took second place. Because of their dedication and perseverance I believe that they are deserving of new uniforms for the team. Sadly, our team has not had the pleasure of wearing new jerseys in over a decade, and we have had to resort to mixing and matching different uniforms to have enough for everyone on the roster. While this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, it does affect our athletes' confidence when they have to compete against better funded teams. It goes without saying that there is something empowering about warming up as a team in matching singlets. The cohesiveness and uniformity that comes from a strong team has the potential to positively change any individual on and off the track.

Unfortunately, we were not approved for new uniforms once again. As you might be aware there is less and less funding for extracurricular activities at all schooling levels and middle school has taken some of the biggest cuts. We have unfortunately been asked to accomplish more with less. Those being impacted most are sadly the students. The Track program provides great opportunities for scholars to voluntarily stay in a positive and supervised environment. We do not have the resources that other schools might have to fundraise in more traditional ways

With help from community members like yourselves we can ensure that there are always programs to support students and that we have the equipment to do so. The intended goal is to purchase 50 uniforms, 25 boys and 25 girls. At $34.50 the total amount we need to fund the purchase is $1,725.00. While this might seem a little pricey for uniforms they were selected with purpose. We picked out sublimated jerseys designs, these will not peel or crack like other cheaper graphics and they are able to be made upon request without the need to worry about discontinued designs in the future. Having contacted other teams who have the same jerseys I am confident that these will last more than several years before we have to replace them again. We hope that we will have enough to anticipate larger rosters in the future, and since we do not have to worry about discontinued designs we will be able to replace some in the future without having a mismatched set.

As a member of our community we hope you understand how important it is to support the youngest generation, especially those who do not have as much as the rest of us. Our scholar athletes would be beyond grateful and we would never be able to thank you enough.

Sincerely,

Coach Anthony Hernandez, Heath Middle School Track & Field Team