Rossi and Ferguson Memorial Scholarship

"What could go wrong?" I had to ask myself this repeatedly to counter the naysayers who said that starting a sports equipment donation program for area kids wouldn't work. "People won't donate their expensive gear." "It's too complicated to manage." "Where will you store it all?" "It's too much work." These were just some of the objections I heard as I shared the idea with some area youth sports clubs. Fortunately, Horsham Little League understood my vision and wanted to also get more kids on the field, and my community responded with incredible support. From there, six other youth sports clubs joined the effort, including Hatboro Little League, Plymouth Little League, Horsham Soccer, Horsham Lacrosse, Upper Dublin Little League and Horsham Field Hockey. I have seen first-hand that service is the backbone of a strong community. It unites neighbors and elevates those in need. The word community is derived from the Latin term communis, which combines the Latin prefix “con”, which means “together” and “munis,” which means “performing services.” So the very word “community” is built on the idea of performing service together. I have found that there is perhaps no greater force than when a community is united for good, but it takes dedication. My community is an ideal example of this, rallying to donate thousands of equipment items for hundreds of local kids in need to play sports. It’s no secret that playing sports can be crucial in helping kids have a healthy childhood and grow into responsible adults. Tragically, only 38 percent of kids ages 6-12 play organized sports, down from 45 percent in 2008, according to The Sports & Fitness Industry Association. Further research shows that upwards of 75 percent of 12-year-olds drop sports annually. Much of this issue is caused by the increasing costs of sports. Sharing your skills and talents to help others is essential to improving one’s community. My initial interest in technology began with stories my grandfather told me of his career building and maintaining networks and mainframes for major corporations. He didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, so he enlisted in the United States Air Force out of high school. There, he learned to build the technical systems for radar arrays at US military bases worldwide. He then used these skills as the foundation for a 30-year career in computer network technology, where he worked for companies like Mars, Campbell Soup, and DuPont. The conversations we’ve had over the years ignited an interest in me that burned brightly, fueling me to max out the computer science curriculum in high school. I developed a passion for technical problem-solving and took every computer science class my high school offered. I refined my programming skills to the point that I won my school’s Java Programming Challenge and earned the Girl Scout / Raytheon Technologies Computer Science Programmer Journey Award. This has motivated me to continue these studies in college. I have leveraged these technology skills to address community, to alleviate human suffering. I incorporate social media, communication platforms, inventory systems, video applications, and syndication networks to address issues with physical fitness to mental health. To address the issue of declining sports participation for kids, I started Play It Forward (fb.com/PlayItForwardGear) in 2018, collecting donated sports equipment across soccer, baseball, softball, lacrosse and field hockey. The program has rallied our community, uniting to provide players with free gear to keep playing the sports they love. Over six years, I have motivated hundreds of neighbors and residents to donate over 7,000 equipment pieces, equipping over 680 kids across nine communities to provide a level playing field for sports access for kids. It’s also kept thousands of pounds of equipment out of landfills. While I appreciate the program receiving the President George H.W. Bush Point of Light Award, National Liberty Museum Young Hero Medal, League of Philadelphia Good Citizenship Award, and Girl Scout Gold Award, the most significant validation is seeing the smiles on kids’ faces when they receive their gear. The experience of Play It Forward has cultivated my leadership, organization, determination, commitment, and, most of all, empathy, helping me become a better citizen for my school, community, and country. I use this to lead by example and be a role model for others, particularly my younger sister, Molly, who is now running Play It Forward for our community while I am in college. As a second-year Villanova University Dean's List computer science student, I am focusing on advancing my technology talents to make more profound impacts on people through a combination of innovation and empathy. I hope to develop powerful solutions to complex problems people are facing. I aim to continue delivering engaging solutions to alleviate suffering from pressing problems, like elevating physical fitness to enhancing mental health. Learning advanced skills across data structures, machine learning, application development, and even artificial intelligence will allow me to devise and develop more advanced innovations to address pressing problems facing our society and beyond. Through all of this, my community commitment has made me a kinder citizen and a stronger student. So through it all with Play It Forward, although I initially asked "what could go wrong," I saw exactly what went right when a community unites to help others in need, like the hundreds of local kids who get the social, emotional, physical and mental benefits of playing sports.