The NFL season may be fully underway, but COVID-19 is still preventing many young athletes from playing the game they love this fall.
Besides the obvious enjoyment that football brings, it's also a significant source of physical activity and social interaction for many youth football teams.
One of those teams, the Inglewood Chargers, recently got a little help from their NFL counterpart when the Bolts held a drive through donation event outside SoFi Stadium last weekend. Each of the approximately 150 players in the Inglewood Chargers league received a Fitbit fitness tracker, Razor scooter, and a $100 Ralphs grocery store gift card all courtesy of the Chargers Impact Fund.
In addition to the players, the Chargers also donated 50 Fitbits to Inglewood Police Department officers. Both the youth football players and officers will be invited to a group in the Fitbit app to participate in weekly fitness challenges to further encourage police/community relations.
"We felt this was a really great way to bring a little excitement to these kids and the Inglewood community as a whole," said Chargers community relations manager Chase Hartman. "It's been a challenging year for everyone, and we know these kids miss being able to play football so we wanted to give them some resources to stay healthy and active while their season is postponed until the spring. One of the best things about football is how it brings people together, and this is just our way of helping to keep that going."
As an incentive to staying active and engaged, the Bolts will also be giving out tickets to a game(s) at SoFi Stadium in 2021 to the player(s) that complete the most weekly fitness challenges. The Chargers and Fuel Up to Play60 also further partnered with Ralphs to generously provide ingredients for each family to make a healthy tailgating pizza.
"What a blessing that came at the right time," said Inglewood Chargers executive board member Renee Brown. "We've already received calls and text messages with photos from parents of kids riding their scooters and purchasing healthy groceries. We want to thank the Los Angeles Chargers and all the vendors that made this happen."
"The importance of building a strong and positive relationship with the police, community and youth will foster a better community and that's what happened this past weekend," said Cinder Eller, senior community affairs liaison for the City of Inglewood. "The Chargers organization provided tools for our Inglewood Chargers youth football league to stay active, nourished and inspired. Helping one person might not change the world, but it could change the world for the one person."
The Los Angeles Chargers and Chargers Impact Fund would like to thank Fitbit, Razor, Ralphs, and Fuel Up to Play60 for their assistance and generosity in this donation.
