Dr Pepper Snapple Group has awarded Orange County Public Schools and the Orange County Police Athletic League a Let’s Play equipment donation valued at $68,000 as part of its partnership with Good Sports. The grant provides resources for physical education classes, recreational programming, and sports teams.
On May 20th, 28 Dr Pepper Snapple Group Orlando employees and family members picked and packed more than $68,000 of brand-new sports equipment. That’s around 2,025 pieces of equipment, including weighted vests, speed discs, baseball helmets, basketballs, volleyballs, baseball gloves, medicine balls and soccer balls. The donation will impact 312,300 kids over the lifetime of the equipment. The deserving recipient organizations were Orange County Police Athletic League and Orange County Public Schools middle and high schools.
“We are really excited that Dr Pepper Snapple and Good Sports chose Orange County Public Schools to receive this donation,” said district health and physical education resource teacher Brenda Christopher-Muench. “This new equipment will help teachers implement standards-based lessons, which will assist thousands of students in meeting their health goals.”
“We at Dr Pepper Snapple Group are very excited to give back to the community here in Orlando, and by partnering with Good Sports, we are able to bring excitement and play to the kids,” said Dr Pepper Snapple Group Orlando Branch Manager Roger Nagy. “We strive to be the Best Beverage Business in the Americas, and providing these deserving kids the opportunity to play more and have fun makes me extremely proud to be a part of this organization.”
OCPS is an urban school district serving more than 200,000 kids daily. The district added 4,000 students in 2017 and it anticipates the growth to continue in 2018. 69% of students are eligible for free and reduced lunch. OCPS offers sports including basketball, softball, cross country, track, golf, swimming, volleyball, flag football, baseball, soccer, and tennis. The grant will impact all 19 high schools and 35 middle schools.
The Orange County Police Athletic League is a juvenile crime prevention program that provides athletic, recreation, and educational activities to at-risk children. PAL uses law enforcement officers as coaches, mentors, instructors, and role models to encourage kids to become healthy, productive, and law-abiding citizens. They have an extremely low participation fee of $10.
“We could not function without the outside support from companies like Dr Pepper Snapple and Good Sports,” said Orange County Police Athletic League Executive Director Brenda Knowles. “This equipment donation will allow PAL to add an extra day of activities in low-income areas by providing scholarships to juveniles who cannot afford to enroll.”
Let’s Play is an initiative by Dr Pepper Snapple Group to provide kids and families with the tools, places and inspiration to make active play a daily priority. Through DPS’s partnership with Good Sports, an organization that provides donations of athletic gear and sports equipment to deserving organizations, Let’s Play has donated more than $4 million in brand-new equipment over the last three years to help kids become active.
