Last weekend my son turned 13. A big step for kids - into the teens. For his birthday this year, instead of a party, he asked for a "give 24" for our local Rec Center. "Give 24" is a fundraiser where in everyone makes a $24.00 donation to the charity that the fundraiser is for. It ends up being one dollar for each hour of one day of your life. How amazing is that?
The Big Lake Lions Rec Center http://www.biglakereccenter.com/ has been built with no government funding. It has been all private donations, in kind donations, grants from private corporations and kids giving for their birthday! Our local population has been behind this project 100% and it shows in the amount of pride the people and their kids have for this facility.
My son plays hockey. Most of the time that means we have to drive at least 30 miles, most often more, for him to participate in the sport that he is passionate about. This facility is 5 minutes from our house, and pretty much 5 minutes from everywhere in Big Lake, Alaska. He can skate just about whenever he wants to in the winter! In the summer the center has Baseball batting cages, soccer field turf, and just about anything you need to have a healthy community fitness wise.
Below: Reed poses with his prize for winning the skate-a-thon in 2012. A signed Alaska Aces jersey and an Ipod touch!
We did the "Give 24" program last year but we didn't make it Reeds birthday. Reeds request this year to have that instead of a party made me so proud to be his mom, and it also reinforced for me that having a facility like this is so important for our community. That even the youngest of our members is vested in the success of the Center gives us hope for the future of our town!
Last year the local high school sent numerous athletes to college with scholarships for sports that we had not been able to get before we had a place for the kids to practice winter and summer. The Center also keeps the costs down for the sports, and for hockey that is huge. It is such an expensive sport that anything that helps keep costs low allows that many more kids and adults even to participate. That is how communities build award winning programs and kids and adults teach each other to do great things! Like "Give 24".
It's not too late to "Give 24" for the Rec Center in honor of Reeds Birthday. Just go to the web site http://www.biglakereccenter.com click on the "Support the Rec Center" tab and make your donation with "Happy Birthday Reed" in the memo. Reed is keeping track and so far has raised just over $300.00. The Lions club will send a personal thank you note for your donation and let Reed know that you have given as well.
The Rec Center is working on Phase II in our building process and every time a donation comes in from the global community, it gets us that much closer to success. If you are ever in Big Lake, the Rec Center is a must see and we will be happy to give you a tour.
So besides teaching our kids to garden, apparently we have also taught them to give back! I hope your community has a Center that kids and adults can get behind, support and be proud of, and I hope it helps take your community as far as ours has taken us.
Community members prepping inside the dry rink for a cancer fundraiser.
Looking across the Lions Club parking lot to the Rec Center.
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