Saturday Sports

. . . and we aren’t talking about the weather!!!

Kids are back in school and Saturdays are buzzing with activities! It’s the beginning of a new SATURDAY SPORTS SEASON!

On a Saturday morning you can see ENP volunteers picking up lunches at Poverello House for delivery to Saturday Sports sites.  At the schools, kids are anxiously waiting for the gate to open on the school campus –  they are ready to play!  Partnership volunteers are unpacking sports equipment, crafts supplies and hanging the Saturday Sports sign which draws kids and families to a safe place for kid to have fun.

This past weekend there were 12 active Saturday Sports Programs with more than 500 kids enjoying activities on a beautiful Saturday morning. In the next few weeks, all 30 programs will be active and filled with kids, taking place in neighborhoods across our city.

Churches have taken the lead roll partnering with the school and neighborhood. Volunteers from the churches serve in a variety of ways; at Saturday Sports, on the school campus during the week and by hosting events and activities in the neighborhood.

In the past few years however, more and more Fresno State Students have taken advantage of the opportunities to serve alongside our church volunteers.  In a few of our partnerships, Fresno State students are actually taking the lead in running Saturday Sports Programs.

It’s a pleasure to meet and engage with these students and introduce them to kids who look up to them as role models and heroes! University students can have huge impact on young lives.  They can influence these students to do well in school and pursue a college education . . . and they also have a ton of energy and LOVE to play with the kids!

ENP’s partnership with Fresno State is a huge win on SO MANY LEVELS!

Students get the opportunity to complete their required service hours while volunteering in our Fresno neighborhoods and they are getting some great insight to the needs and opportunities to serve in our city.

They are also learning about ENP and more importantly, the valuable roll of the church, not just as a building on the corner, but as PEOPLE with a heart to love and serve.

Many students are referred to ENP through the Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement at Fresno State, whose “mission” is to improve the education and development of students and helping create a better community through service and learning.

The mission is definitely being accomplished!

A number of Fresno State students continue to serve beyond their required hours and some beyond their graduation.  Our partnerships are stronger because of these students, and our city’s future looks a little brighter when we envision the impact these young men and women will be making in years to come!

. . . . . .

Students are able to visit the ENP table at the Fresno State Volunteer Fairs and sign up to attend an orientation and get fingerprinted on the Fresno State Campus.

It can’t get much easier than that!

Here we go again! Lots of fun for kids in neighborhoods all over Fresno with the start of a new season of Saturday Sports! There will be FREE SATURDAY MORNING CAMPS at 30 different sites this year providing activities and “green space” for kids who have little to do on a Saturday morning.

We are also thrilled by the number of Fresno State students who will be volunteering in a variety of ways this school year.

Last weekend the Fresno State Softball team visited Addams Saturday Sports. Track and Field, and Lacross teams will visit other sites in the coming weeks. These students add such excitement and energy to the programs while giving kids the opportunity to envision themselves as college students which reinforces Fresno Unified’s goal of preparing career ready graduates.

A group of Nutrition students are volunteering regularly with N.E.E.D. (Nutrition and Exercise Education Development) visiting a different Saturday Sports Program each week. You know the kids are not only learning the importance of fitness, but the value of eating healthy foods each day as well.

Marketing and Communications classes are also volunteering with ENP. After they get an understanding of the goals, mission and vision of ENP, they will each work on a project that will help them gain experience in their area of study and help ENP at the same time.

It’s a win-win for everyone! . . . and the year has just begun!

So much to celebrate!

ENP’s partnership with Fresno State students is a valuable one . . . THE KIDS LOVE IT . . . and all of us at ENP do, too!

It’s that time of year again! Almost time for school to start again – which also means we are out finding great deals on markers, crayons, scissors, playground balls and other supplies for the kids at Saturday Sports! Every year about this time we are shopping, because the deals are great!

This week I was at Walmart and a very nice young man helped me with my overflowing cart full of fun! Of course the question came, that I always expect. He asked, “Are you a teacher?” Then I go went on to explain:

“No, all this stuff is for Saturday Sports programs. I work with Every Neighborhood Partnership. We provide these supplies for churches who do programs on Saturday mornings with kids in more than 30 Fresno neighborhoods. It’s a great program and so simple! Volunteers from the churches open up a school playground for a couple hours on a Saturday morning and play with kids in the neighborhood, giving them a “green space” to play and something fun to do on the weekend. They might play soccer, throw a football, jump rope, play board games or do crafts. It’s pretty casual and unstructured which makes it easy for the churches. The kids just have fun and at the end of the morning they leave with a sack lunch, provided by Poverello House.”

Store employees typically respond with positive, semi-interested comments like, “Oh, that’s great.” However this young man’s response made me smile! (OK – I admit, it kind of made me cry a little.) He told me that people from churches had a very positive impact on his life while growing up. I thought he was going to tell me he went to Sunday School, or VBS or something, but he said, “You tell those people that they may never really know the impact they are having on those kids! Every weekend people from churches would hand out lunches when we lived near 99. My brother and I couldn’t wait to go there every weekend. I’ll never forget them!” This was an 18 year old boy who was telling me this story. He is now working and saving up to go to college. Needless to say I walked away feelling pretty blessed thinking about the time our partnership churches are spending with kids in Fresno neighborhoods and the impact they are making!

More than 3000 kids attended a Saturday Sports Program during the past school year, and they received MORE than a lunch! Volunteers played with them, talked to them, colored with them, AND gave them a sack lunch before they went home. What do you think those kids will say when they are 18?

Volunteers have an opportunity to make an impact this year on thousands of Fresno kids on Saturday mornings. Churches have an opportunity to reach out to them. There are places form more volunteers to serve at existing Saturday Sports Programs, and there are more neighborhoods with kids who would LOVE something to do on a Saturday morning! How many more lives can be reached this year?

The opportunities are there . . . and so are the kids!

. . . .

If you would like more information about Saturday Sports, or would like to donate craft supplies or sports equipment for these programs, we would love to talk to you. For a list of items we still need, please contact us, or check out the list on our website.