“Elevate Sports 684”, is a new community initiative offered by the Christopher James Foeoletini Ledoux Foundation to promote healthy living, prevent substance abuse, and strengthen families through youth development in sports and recreation.
The program expands access to resources for underserved communities to participate in youth athletic programs across the territory.
For the past five years, one way the Foeoletini Foundation has successfully provided outreach to the Fagaloa youth and Eastern Districts of Tutuila was through its youth athletics program.
Since athletes who started as young as 4-6 years old in the Foeoletini Foundation sports programs have traveled overseas and to the US Mainland to represent American Samoa on a regional and international level, this initiative has helped keep young people active, healthy, and away from drugs.
The Foeoletini Foundation recognizes the growing need for more of these programs and also the challenges, such as a shortage of playing and practice fields and public parks for recreation. It can be difficult for many parents to finance an athlete’s endeavors, buy sports gear, and equipment.
Also, aside from government-run athletics programs, many sports leagues in American Samoa have become privatized, requiring families to “pay-to-play.” As a result, these leagues exclude the participation of many children from underprivileged communities.
In response, the Foeoletini Foundation has stepped in to assist with costs related to league registration, uniforms, meals and hydration, transportation, and team bonding activities, coaches’ stipends, and clinics for numerous teams and sports.
Trude Gasetotolemasina Ledoux-Sunia, Executive Director of the Foeoletini Foundation said: “We are deeply grateful to the Foeoletini Foundation Board of Trustees, our community partners and private donors, the Department of Commerce’s Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Division, and the American Samoa ARPA Oversight Office’s Nonprofit Grant opportunities for their partnership and continued support in bringing this vision to life.
“We look forward to sharing this opportunity with the Territory so our local teams and athletes can focus on training, development, and competing rather than looking for ways to fundraise .”
Elevate Sports 684 has launched a page on the Foeoletini Foundation website www.foeoletini.org, featuring a form to submit team information and proposals for what teams need.
