Originally published April 23, 2019 in the Daily Memphian.
By Kate Crawford
Nike has awarded 14 Memphis-area nonprofit organizations and schools a combined $100,000 to help children be more active.
The grants, awarded through the Nike Community Impact Fund, support programs that get kids moving through play, sport and physical activity. The grants were determined by a select group of employees from Nike’s North America Logistics Center and Community Store in Memphis who work with Charities Aid Foundation of America, Nike’s grant-making partner, to share local knowledge, then review and recommend the organizations to receive funding.
Including the latest grants, the Nike Community Impact Fund has awarded $180,000 to local nonprofits since the local NCIF program launched in 2018.
The organizations and projects receiving grants this year are:
- Bridges USA: Deliver adventure education through a challenge course for differently abled students.
- Church Health: A partnership with Perea Preschool/Elementary to help children with self-regulation, positive self-esteem and discovering joy in movement.
- Collage Dance Collective Inc.: Students will be exposed to the craft of classical ballet and will be encouraged to express themselves with confidence.
- Cummings Elementary/Middle School: Students will have the joy of experiencing a new outdoor climbing wall.
- Dragonfly Capacity Development, Play Where You Stay: Play Where You Stay offers soccer as a way to connect coaches and equipment with children and open spaces.
- Girls Inc. of Memphis: Girls introduced to various sports activities that will bolster their self-confidence and personal growth.
- Girls on the Run Memphis: Offers additional Girls on the Run and Heart & Sole programs, designed to develop and enhance girls’ social, physical and physiological competencies to successfully navigate life experiences.
- Green Dot Public Schools Tennessee: Offers Grindhouse Boxing program, designed as a behavioral and academic intervention that promotes the physical, mental and emotional health of Fairley High School’s most vulnerable students.
- Memphis Athletic Ministries Inc.: In support of a youth spring basketball league in the greater Memphis community.
- New Ballet Ensemble: Offers free dance training and creative youth development to underrepresented youth in the Memphis area.
- Project Transformation Tennessee Inc.: In support of a summer enrichment program that focuses on the holistic health of the child by building self-esteem and academic abilities while igniting a lifelong love of learning and health.
- Special Olympics Tennessee Inc.: Offers the highest quality of sports training programs for young people with intellectual disabilities in Tennessee.
- Young Actors Guild Inc.: Youth experience dance as a tool for exercise, team-building, increased self-esteem and confidence.
- Youth Villages Inc.: Children learn to overcome their emotional and behavioral issues through running programs.
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