WASHINGTON — Online school through ZOOM is difficult enough for kids and parents to manage, but when it comes to physical education (PE) classes, there are a lot of students being left out and left behind.
Children have not been able to engage in sports the same way through the coronavirus pandemic. That has left many of them without access to any sporting equipment. Pre-pandemic, many of those kids only had access through their local school, during extracurricular group sports, or playing with friends.
A Washington and Baltimore area nonprofit organization is devoted to correcting those inequities that exist with access to sporting equipment. The issue existed before the pandemic, but coronavirus has only exacerbated the problem.
"Participating in kids sports is important for development -- no matter what. But in a pandemic it's clear it was even more important," said Max Levitt, founder and CEO of Leveling the Playing Field.
Levitt founded the organization in 2013 after seeing how much sporting equipment was going to waste by collegiate and professional sports teams. He knew there was a huge need for used equipment in underserved and impoverished areas.
"Everyone's gotten tired of finding a sock, finding a stuffed animal to play catch and things like that," said DCPS Director of Health and Physical Education Miriam Kenyon. "It's very different, what physical education looks like virtually now."
DCPS and Kenyon have developed a working relationship with Leveling the Playing Field which has yielded enormous benefits during the pandemic.
Levitt and his organization have a warehouse filled with used sporting equipment they've obtained from various teams and donations. Now those items are going to kids who badly need them.
Leveling the Playing Field has put together sports kits and more than 700 have gone to DCPS students so far.
"It's a set of four cones, a playground ball, a jump rope, a frisbee, and a pedometer. This has been super helpful for us to make sure kids have the equipment," said Kenyon.
Through donations, the group pieces together those sports kits for $20 each.
Leveling the Playing Field launched a March Madness fundraiser. Anyone who buys a bracket from them, the winner gets $500. One bracket is $20 bucks or companies can purchase twenty brackets for $275. Regardless of the amount purchased, every dollar is tax-deductible.
Brackets are available for purchase through Thursday morning when the first NCAA college basketball tournament games begin.