[Mark Padgett]

One of our local middle schools (which we use a lot for practices and games for our local kids rec league) has had a problem with the wall padding behind the baskets in their gym. The gym has a curtain that comes down in the middle which separates the gym into two basketball floors so the padding is behind four different baskets. We asked the school district about replacing the padding. We felt it had deteriorated so much, it presented a safety issue to kids playing basketball. The district said it didn't have the money to make the repairs (gee - what a surprise). Since the district itself doesn't have sports teams at the middle school level, they don't "officially" play games there.

We offered to pay for the replacement of the padding on both walls and they agreed. The work was just completed a few days ago. I went to look at it and it is a million times better. It cost our organization a little over $2000 but we were glad to do it. We're happy to spend our funds to make our games safer for our kids. Kudos to our Board president who came up with the idea.