KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Three high school athletes from Portage Central had an idea for a group that would allow more youth students the chance to play sports. It’s been over a year since they began, on Sunday they held their 2nd annual 5K to help raise funds.
What began as an assignment from the DECA club at Portage Central, grew from there.
“Now we can use these skills that we used to hold this successful equipment drive and transfer it over to a sports project,” said Brianna Zhang.
Janelle Yao, Brianna Zhang and Aanya Goel are the founders of Leaders for Youth Sports. A non-profit that helps serve youth athletes in Kalamazoo County.
“I’ve seen a lot of kids drop out of my tennis classes because it is a lot of money. And same with dance. There aren’t a lot of kids that do what I do because it is so expensive and so unique to this area,” said Goel.
All three girls are athletes themselves that have seen first hand how the financial requirements for sports have limited some athletes. Janelle plays travel soccer and it’s a conversation she has with her parents often.
“We have to sit down and sometimes talk and look at this from a money perspective and say, you want to play club soccer in the spring but it’s not feasible. Or you want to go to this trip in Kansas or Florida and go to a college showcase to possibly be recruited but you have to take a step back because you realize that plane tickets now a days are thousands of dollars and not everyone can just spend a week to go somewhere far away,” said Yao.
In the last year the girls have raised over $7,000 to help support youth athletics at home and abroad. One of their most successful campaigns was an equipment distribution event where families were able to pick out free gear for their athletes.
“The kids walked in and they were able to pick anything they wanted. The way their faces lit up when they walked into that room was so incredible for us to see and I think those moments really motivate us to continue our work,” said Zhang.
Their efforts rolled in to Sunday morning’s 5K in Kalamazoo where 100 people participated, raising over $1,000 in just a few hours. They never thought that their idea from DECA club would turn into a full fledge non-profit but they’ve seen their hard work pay off and continue to see the impact it has made on people in their community.
“It’s very surreal. it still doesn’t feel real. Because I feel like starting a non-profit, people think that it’s so scary but I feel like we kept pushing forward through all the challenges and that was pretty awesome,” said Yao.
Leaders for Youth Sports is rapidly growing. The girls plan to branch out to other areas in West Michigan, and across the state within the next year.
“Right now we are heavily centralized in Kalamazoo and Portage area. Most of our efforts have been purely in this area. So we have plans to maybe donate to Detroit Public Schools and work on opening branches across the state so that would be amazing in the next few years,” said Goel.
If. you're interested in learning more about the group, click here.
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