Horsham Rallies to ‘Play It Forward’ for Little League Players

When it comes to recycling most people think of plastic and paper. However, when it was time for Katie Harrington to devise a community service project for her Girl Scout Silver Award (the second-highest honor the organization gives), she had a different type of recycling in mind. As a player of a variety of sports over the years, she had noticed that some of her teammates didn’t always have the right equipment, either lacking specific pieces of gear or playing with items that didn’t quite fit.

"Sometimes a teammate didn’t have cleats because they didn’t fit anymore or had battling helmet or a glove that was too small," Katie explained. "On the other hand, I noticed that my family had a closet full of gear that my sister and I had outgrown that was just sitting there. So, we started giving our outgrown gear to players who could use it. Then I thought there were probably other families in the community with piled up outgrown gear that could also benefit even more players."

Baseball and softball are particularly ‘gear intensive,’ requiring bats, gloves, helmets, pants, masks and bags for the average player. Katie decided to focus on these sports, reaching out to Horsham Little League with the idea. Todd Conn and John Sabo, both of whom serve as officials for the organization, immediately responded enthusiastically.

"As parents, we know the costs of kids’ sports equipment, which continues to rise every year. Not only that, but as kids get bigger, that equipment probably won’t last more than a year or two," explained John Sabo, a Horsham Little League official who served as an advisor to the ‘Play It Forward’ program. "You always wonder what you’ll do with that equipment after your kids outgrow it, since it often just collects dust in your garage or basement before you get rid of it. Luckily for Horsham Little League, Katie helped provide a solution for all this old equipment."

"The support from Horsham Little League was amazing," Katie explained. "They made such a quick decision to support the program and Mr. Sabo has been especially so supportive of it. He and the organization helped communicate the program to Horsham Little League families, coordinate events and even gave us storage space for all the donated equipment."

From there, the ‘Play It Forward’ equipment donation initiative launched. Through initial promotions across Facebook and email, word-of-mouth started to spread quickly. "I thought if we got 200 items it would be a big success," Katie explained. "People across the Horsham community kept contacting us asking if they could donate. So many donors said they heard about it from their friends and neighbors. Then we had people dropping off donations collected from entire neighborhoods. Then we had people stopping by our donation stations from other towns like Hatboro, Montgomeryville, Upper Dublin and Warminster to drop off gear. So, we passed the 200-item mark really fast; then we got 300, then 400 and then 500. It was amazing."

Overall, Katie and her team collected over 796 pieces of donated gear. They then sorted, cleaned, adjusted and inventoried each item. However, this was just the beginning. Katie and her team of volunteers then held multiple distribution stations to get the gear into the hands of area players.

"That was probably the best part; seeing the impact it made on the players. I think I realized it was a good idea when so many people would say, ‘This is so great,’ or ‘I am so happy someone is doing this.’ In the end, this was such a success because of the amazing response of our community and the incredible support of Horsham Little League," Katie said. "We are blessed to live in such a generous, giving community and I am so thankful to everyone who made this program such a success for the kids."

According to John, "From the start, Katie had a vision and plan for this amazing program. Her organization, communication and dedication during this entire process has been phenomenal. She has a passion for helping others and it shows. The response from players, coaches, and parents has been tremendous. At the end of the day, it’s about helping the parents and players of Little League and hopefully sparking an increased interest in the sport."

In total, the ‘Play It Forward’ program distributed nearly 300 free equipment pieces to over 75 Little League players across the community. The plan now is for Horsham Little League to make this an annual event. As John explained, “I look forward to passing down this program to the players of Horsham Little League for years to come.”

You can follow Horsham Little League’s Play It Forward program on Facebook at facebook.com/HLLPlayItForward to get updates on the program’s progress, as well as future equipment donation and distribution stations. You can also learn more about Horsham Little League at HorshamLittleLeague.com.