Youth sports across the nation are being threatened.
School budgets, family income and gender inequality are all putting American kids’ ability to participate in after-school sports at risk.
Currently, 24% of U.S. high schools don’t offer sports programs. Fees to play community sports are rising, and nearly two-thirds of school sports budgets are stagnant or decreasing, leaving families at a loss for how to get their children involved.
DICK’S Sporting Goods believes every kid deserves a chance to play and is stepping up to the plate to help turn those dreams into reality.
The company will be matching up to $1 million in donations made to the DICK’S Foundation at store checkouts from now until September 13, 2019, with the goal of providing access to sports for one million youth athletes over the next five years.
DICK’S will also be partnering with the Women’s Sports Foundation to expand research on the participation and retention of young girls in sports. As it stands now, 56% of teenage girls do not participate in any sport, compared to 48% of boys.
USWNT star and World Cup champion Alex Morgan, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and NBA star turned ESPN analyst Jalen Rose are among the famous faces supporting the cause. Former Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn also joins Fitzgerald and Rose on the DICK’S Sporting Goods Sports Matter Advisory Board.
Kelsey Driscoll 