The Holiday Season Is A Perfect Time to Teach Our Youth How to Give Back.
It's easy to lose sight of the holiday spirit, similar to forgetting why we started in youth sport.
It’s Sunday December 25th, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
The holiday season means a lot of different things to different people, but in the world of youth sport it often means a very busy time of the year, especially if your sport is in season.
When we are knee deep in getting our young athletes around to various practices, games and tournaments it’s easy to forget the purpose behind all the business. When we got our kids started in sport, we had visions of them playing, smiling and being active. Perhaps pick up some skills, some friends and perhaps a love for the activity.
The participation component at a young age can quickly make way to competition and we can lose sight of the spirit of why we began. A strong parallel to the spirit of the holiday season, yes?
The holiday spirit can easily take a back seat to the next appointment or next commitment and trappings of getting gifts for everyone.
One of the best initiatives witnessed over the years was a local youth baseball team collecting food for the local food bank over a 4 week period leading to Christmas. A great idea that brought the team of 16-17 year olds to the local grocery store collecting non-perishable food items. The team got a spot in the local Santa Claus parade with their jerseys on pushing grocery carts collecting food items.
Truly in the spirit of the season.
Here is to our local sports teams finding a similar way to give back to the community so we never lose sight of what is really important!
Merry Christmas and best of the season to you and your family!
In the spirit of the season, one of my favorite Christmas songs from the Boss!