Executive Director’s Note: By Steve Tseckares
I know it may sound trite, but it is hard to believe that a year has already passed since I became executive director here at Backyard Sports Cares. These past 12 months have been full of surprises, challenges and, most importantly, wonderful moments.
Curiously, some of those wonderful moments have come while just sitting at my desk here at our offices in White Plains. The phone will ring and on the other end will be the parent of an athlete with special needs who is searching for athletic activities for their child. I will then describe our program on Sunday mornings at Purchase College and invite them to bring their child that next weekend.
In almost every case, the parent expresses thanks for what we do. But more importantly, I can hear and feel the relief in their voice. They have just found an organization that is paying attention to their child and providing sports to a population that rarely is given the chance to participate in sports.
A recent study by the University of Sydney in Australia followed sports participation of over 4,000 children from the ages of 4 to 13. The study found that sports participation was linked to lower absenteeism, better attention and memory, higher test scores and higher odds of moving on to college or university.
This study reminded me of a story from a few summers ago when, on the final day at Camp Shape (our summer camp in New Rochelle), a mother appeared in the doorway and approached then executive director Danny Bernstein. She was accompanied by a young man who appeared to be around 20 years old.
She introduced herself and then handed Danny an envelope containing $162 in cash. She explained that this was a donation to Backyard Sports Cares that she had collected from that summer’s parents who were on scholarship.
She then introduced her son, Miguel, who had attended Camp Shape for five summers when he was a teen. He told Danny he is now a junior at Penn State majoring in business administration. He then thanked Danny and explained that, while he probably didn’t remember him, he played tennis during his time at Camp Shape. In fact, as he said, he was introduced to the game at Camp Shape, fell in love with it and still plays.
He concluded by saying that without the many skills he learned at Camp Shape, including the value of hard work, respect and integrity, he would never have developed the confidence to be the first in his family to pursue a college degree.
Which brings me back to the title of this note (and our tagline here at Backyard Sports), “Changing Children’s Lives Through Sports.” It may sound simple, but that’s what we do and we couldn’t be happier to be doing it!
