A local teen is trying to make youth sports more affordable for families.
Whether it’s a touchdown or the game-winning goal, 17-year-old Caroline Mohamadi believes sports should be available to all.
Stream NBC4 newscasts for free right here, right now.
WATCH HEREThat’s why she started an organization called Play it FWD.
“Basically anything an athlete could need, we say, ‘Come bring it and we’ll distribute it,’” Mohamadi said.
We have the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily.
SIGN UP The Sidwell Friends School junior hosts donation drives for gently used sporting goods and donates the equipment to organizations that give them to kids who can’t afford them.
“The equipment's really expensive,” Mohamadi said. “Being able to, you know, pay for training is really expensive. And I wanted to help with at least one of those things.”
Play it FWD started out small -- as a school club. Now, Mohamadi works with about six other schools in the DMV and across the country, recruiting more students to collect donations.
So far, she’s collected 900 pieces of equipment valued at about $30,000.
Much of that equipment ends up at Leveling the Playing Field in Silver Spring.
“Our motto is getting kids off the sideline and giving them opportunities they might not have had,” Leveling the Playing Field Greater Washington Program Director Phillip Williams said.
Mohamadi interned there.
“When people do these collection drives or equipment drives and things like that, we appreciate it because it actually helps serve all these students in all these areas and all these participants of sports that we’re actually looking for,” Williams said.
Mohamadi is an athlete, herself. She has played field hockey since the fifth grade and says the skills she’s gotten on and off the field changed her life.
“I think that's the biggest thing -- is the way that a sport has helped shape my identity,” Mohamadi said. “I can now spread, you know, that feeling for people that may not have had access to do that before.”
Mohamadi will be very busy when school lets out. She hopes to plan two more drives this summer.
