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‘Athletes to Athletes’ helps Greensboro youth

Posted on October 23, 2008October 23, 2008 by Staff

Staff photo by Kelsey Hamilton. Carrboro athletes, left to right, Brandon Hunter, Evan Arant, Simon Stiffler and Clay Pinney worked this summer to raise awareness for the needs of Peeler Recreation Center in Greensboro.By Kelsey Hamilton
Courtesy of The Carrboro Commons

For many high school students, summer means spending time with friends, relaxing at the community pool and sleeping in until lunch. But for four Carrboro High students, their summer vacation meant a whole lot more.

Carrboro High School seniors Evan Arant, Brandon Hunter, Simon Stiffler and Clay Pinney decided to help Joe Kelly, a Rotary Club member from Greensboro, raise money for a local youth athletic proagram at Peeler Recreation Center in Greensboro.

“We just wanted to help the community,” Stiffler said. “Everyone should have the opportunity to play sports.”

The four students are football players for Carrboro High. Arant said that the project, dubbed “Athletes to Athletes,” was something they could relate to because they know the value of what it means to be on a team.

Kelly said that the previous grant for Peeler had expired and they really wanted to continue to hold a basketball league at no cost for local youth in the area. In addition, the students at Carrboro High said that they wanted to provide the kids with snacks because they were at the recreation center from after school until late in the evening, with some having not eaten anything since lunch.

“So that was kind of where the kids from Carrboro came in,” said Kelly. “They couldn’t believe they were playing without eating. They decided they wanted to raise money to get these kids fed for the upcoming season.”

The students heard about Peeler’s situation from Arant’s mother, who was contacted by Kelly, a longtime friend and fellow graduate of UNC. The students helped Kelly apply for grants and raise money to help fund a basketball league so that local youth could play at no cost.

“Chapel Hill and Carrboro kids have it a lot better off than what these kids have,” said Arant. “We just wanted to help.”

The name of the project was coined Athletes to Athletes by the students because Arant said they were athletes who wanted to help others who had a passion for sports just like them. The students from Carrboro helped collect signed balls from UNC basketball and football teams to auction off.

Darryl Kosciak, the Youth First coordinator for Greensboro Parks and Recreation and a grant writer from the Greensboro Police Athletic League, recognized the efforts of Kelly and the boys and applied for a joint grant for Peeler from the State of North Carolina Governor’s Commission on Crime. Peeler Recreation Center and four other centers subsequently received $500,000 to hold football and basketball leagues after school at no cost for the players because it brought kids off the streets and provided a safe place away from gangs and crimes.

“Even though the kids were not directly responsible for the grant, you could say that the kids were responsible for the grant coming,” said Kelly.

According to Carrboro High football coach Jason Tudryn, the accomplishments of the four students were not overlooked back at home.

“It is a tribute to these guys that they did something that had some meaning and impacted a great deal of people,” said Tudryn. “I’m proud of those guys for following through with that and being a part of it.”

Arant’s mother, Mae, said that she was also proud of their willingness to help other children even if it meant sacrificing time during the summer.

“When I spoke to Evan about what Joe was doing and the needs of these kids, I was really proud of Evan’s response,” said Mae Arant. “He wanted to do something proactive to keep these boys involved and developed the ideas around Athletes to Athletes. He recruited the other boys immediately.”

Mae Arant said that she feels the work of these students should also bring awareness to the importance of providing a safe haven for youth in this community.

“I just wish that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Durham communities would take note of this grant opportunity that Greensboro developed and do the same for the kids here,” she said. “They need to act with a sense of urgency to address the very real issues of violence, drugs and gangs in our community.”

Kelly said that the dedication of these students to the community of Greensboro is something that is rare, but very special.

“We just want to give them the opportunity to play sports,” said Pinney.
And that’s just what they did.

Kelsey Hamilton is a UNC student writing for The Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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