Sports program aids relief effort
Sports may be the last thing people in the Franklin County area are thinking about right now, but a unique local sports league is putting the needs of the community first.
The Upward Sports League at Mount Hope Baptist Church, working together with the national sports organization, is helping to distribute tarps, T-shirts, men’s and women’s polo shirts, athletic shorts and backpacks to provide relief to those affected by the deadly storms that moved through the area last week.
Working with the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Agency and ten churches in impacted areas of Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, Upward Sports is helping to equip volunteers from its headquarters in Upstate South Carolina. Fifty tarps have already been delivered to the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief agency to help meet immediate needs.
“We work with these churches on an ongoing basis to bring smiles to children’s faces through sports, but our relationship with them goes deeper than sports. This is truly a partnership in service and ministry, so it just seems right that we should step in to offer whatever resources we can to help these communities affected by the tornados,” said Caz McCaslin, founder and president of the national Christian sports organization.
Garth Lindsay, regional representative for Upward Sports, said, “Mount Hope Baptist Church truly loves this community and wants to do whatever it takes to serve the people around them. Usually I help them to do this through sports, but in the wake of this tragedy, I’m watching them do it by passing out things like tarps and T-shirts.”
Together, these 10 Upward Sports churches served nearly 2,500 K-5 through sixth-grade children and their families through sports in the past year. All across North America, Upward Sports partnered with 2,400 churches to serve more than 550,000 children last year.
The initial delivery of tarps will be followed by more than 17,000 items donated by Upward Sports and distributed by church partners in their local communities.
Founded in 1995 by McCaslin, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian sports league for children. The first-class sports programming, which includes basketball, flag football, soccer and cheerleading, provides a fun sports experience based on healthy competition for kids, teaching skills for the sports arena and values for life.
