The cost of living continues to rise and many Prince George families already struggling to pay the bills can’t afford to sign their kids up for organized sporting activities.
Fortunately, there is an organization out there that help make sports more affordable and Vonda Hofferd wants everybody to know about it.
KidSport Prince George will provide up to $150 per year per kid to pay for registration fees, although there’s a good chance there’s enough funding for $200 each. It might not be enough to cover the entire cost of playing for an entire season but it’s a start, and Hofferd says more kids and their families should take advantage of it.
“We want to get as many youth involved in sports as we can,” said Hofferd, chair of KidSport Prince George. “We have funds available to assist the registration to get kids back into sports.”
KidSport Prince George was started 17 years ago by Johanna Jenkins and Myrna Cable, who brought the national organization to the city originally to help minor lacrosse families pay registration costs for their kids who had to travel out of town for games. Helped by local organizations, such as the Prince George Cougars and their Mega 50-50 draw, and private donors who made their own cash contributions and participated in fundraising events, the program has proved extremely popular and has helped kids from all sports get involved in organized leagues and clubs.
“We get a small portion of funding from Sport BC but most of our funding comes from local donations,” said Hofferd. “We were so fortunate that just before COVID, we had Christine Nicholls working for us on the board and she did an absolutely amazing job of fundraising that the funds she raised have carried through COVID.”
KidSport only pays for registration, but there are other charitable organizations such as Jumpstart, which will pay for equipment.
Among the KidSport ambassadors are Hockey Hall of Fame forward Jarome Iginla, former women’s national hockey team forward Rebecca Johnston, three-time Olympic triathlete Simon Whitfield, Saskatchewan Roughriders placekicker Brett Lauther, and Olympic speedskating champion Catriona Lemay Doan.
“Catriona Lemay Doan was a KidSport (funding recipient),” said Hofferd. “There are Olympic athletes that got started with KidSport.”
Hofferd dropped KidSport funding application forms to 23 schools in the city and teachers, school staff and parent groups will be trying to promote the program to make sure kids and their families are aware the funding is available. Registration forms available at the schools can be dropped off at city hall. For more information, call Hofferd can be reached at 250-565-5180.
KidSport began in 1993 as an offshoot from Sport BC and it is annually helps tens of thousands of kids across Canada participate in organized sports. Last year, KidSport Prince George helped pay their registration costs for 147 kids and it’s Hofferd’s goal to far exceed that number this year.
Jenkins, Cable and Nicholls have stepped down from the KidSport board but remain passionate about the program, knowing how many kids it has helped.
“Coming out of COVID there are going to be a lot of kids that are going to need to get that funding,” said Jenkins. “It’s an anonymous program that does lots of fun things and good things.”
Jenkins remembers one of the Cougars 50-50 draws, in which donors gave KidSport $8,000 worth of tickets on the draw, and the committee had to round up a small army of volunteers to gather in one of the CN Centre suites. There job was to check each ticket after the winning number was announced during the third period of the game. KidSport didn’t win the draw but one of the volunteers checking the tickets mentioned to Jenkins how much the program had helped her and her kids.
“This one girl at the end of the evening came up to me and said, ‘I became a widow, I have four young children and you know what, I could never have done it without KidSport.’”
