It may still be the dog days of summer, but the Columbus Blue Jackets are making sure they’re spending their time in August impacting their community. Thanks to the Blue Jackets Foundation and Leveling the Playing Field, families in Central Ohio will now have an affordable option to buy sporting goods thanks to ongoing generous donations.
On Wednesday, the Blue Jackets Foundation and Leveling the Playing Field (LPF) announced this new initiative to increase accessibility and remove barriers to sports for youth and families in Central Ohio. LPF specifically gives kids in under-resourced communities the opportunity to enjoy sports through the donation of used and excess sporting equipment to programs and schools serving low-income communities.
Together, the Blue Jackets Foundation and LPF are working together to help eliminate barriers of entry to the sport of hockey while helping kids remain active and growing the game. With the support of Advanced Drainage Systems, the Foundation granted $25,000 to LPF to develop and produce five, co-branded bins to be used as equipment collections at a number of sports facilities.
Initiative Officially Launched
On Saturday morning at Chiller North in Lewis Center, a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place to officially open the initiative. Blue Jackets’ goaltender Daniil Tarasov stopped by and made the ceremonial first donation into the bin. Things like this are important to Tarasov. He saw firsthand growing up how hard it was for some of his peers to get the equipment needed to play hockey.
“I think it is huge and I’m really thankful for the Columbus Blue Jackets’ organization doing this stuff,” Tarasov said. “It’s really important for a lot of kids to like and join the hockey and better to know this game. And they did a lot of opportunity for our hockey community to grow. So that means a lot.”
“Back in my days, there was not a lot (of equipment.) Sometimes it was a problem to get the gear. This opportunity, I give for the kids. It’s huge.”
Blue Jackets Foundation Executive Director Andee Cochran said that this initiative started out as early as 2019 based on a report done in Central Ohio through the Aspen Institute. At the heart of the matter was why were kids leaving sports.
“There were leaders in our community that came together to really just sit down and talk about what is the state of play in Central Ohio,” Cochran said. “What are some of the barriers? Are kids staying in sports? Are we seeing less kids in sports? And we know nationally there is a challenge there of kids leaving sports. So what are those reasons?
“Then coming out of that report, one of the key findings they said was a lack of access to equipment. There’s a reason why kids are leaving the game. To address that, leaders in our community came together and the Blue Jackets came together and the Foundation came with an investment to partner with Leveling the Playing Field to help create a citywide equipment collection program for all equipment, not just hockey.”
The Rise of Leveling the Playing Field
Leveling the Playing Field is worked with the Blue Jackets to help setup the bins. These bins are located at all of the Chiller locations throughout Columbus as well as the Liberty Township/Powell YMCA.
LPF Program Director Eric Rutkowski was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and opened up about the job they’re doing not only in Columbus, but nationally.
“We started in Washington, D.C. a little over 10 years ago,” Rutkowski said. “Our founder is Max Levitt. He was an equipment manager for Syracuse and saw all the equipment that was being wasted. He started collecting it and giving it out to groups that needed it. That eventually turned into a warehouse. That warehouse eventually expanded to Baltimore and then to Philadelphia. Then this past summer, they expanded to Buffalo and then to Columbus.”
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The warehouse is located behind the Skate Zone 71. Rutkowski says the warehouse is a cross between a sporting goods store and a food bank.
“The cost has really become a prohibitive factor for a lot of kids getting involved in sports, especially a sport like hockey where all of the equipment is expensive. Rinks are limited. Ice time is expensive. And all of those things add up together. It becomes really hard to get into hockey. So if we can alleviate as many of those cost barriers as possible, we can let a lot more kids access the sport of hockey and beyond.”
LPF has plans to expand further into the Midwest in the coming months where they hope to continue on their mission to help as many kids and families as possible get the equipment they need to play sports.
Challenges Still Remain But You Can Help
Seeing the launch of this new initiative is a great step in helping families and children get into sports. But challenges still remain. Cochran believes that making sure kids know there are multiple paths into hockey is something that can alleviate many of these challenges. It doesn’t just have to be on-ice performance.
“I think the challenge is just letting people know that you can get involved in our sport beyond playing on the ice,” Cochran said. “I think it’s about educating families and kids thar you can be part of our game by picking up a stick and playing in your neighborhood driveway. You can play our game through video gaming. It isn’t just about what you see on the ice with the professionals. There are many ways to get involved. You can come to games. You can watch games on TV. I think that’s one of the barriers and challenges that people always assume right away is that it’s a high commitment. It isn’t. It’s accessible to everyone.”
You can have a hand in helping families and children get access to affordable equipment. If you have any old equipment you aren’t using, it doesn’t just have to be hockey equipment, you can go to any of the bins and drop your donation in. The bins are accessible year-round.
Then in the fall, the Foundation holds an annual equipment sale before the youth hockey seasons get started. Fans can purchase equipment and can also donate to the Foundation at that event.
The sporting-good collection bins are just the latest way the Blue Jackets continue to impact Central Ohio in a positive way. They continue to do their part to ensure that future generations have access to sports that might not have been available otherwise.