The Digital Harbor football program is short 20 helmets do large growth in participation, and assistant coach Zac Blanchard reached out to the community for financial support. A GoFundMe exceeded the $7,700 goal in less than 48 hours.
From the GoFundMe:
Digital Harbor High School’s football program is growing fast – we’ve more than doubled in size over the last two seasons, and we just had even more boys sign up for the 2024 season than expected. That creates a good, but expensive, problem – we are short 20 helmets.
Due to advancements in concussion prevention, football helmets are expensive – the standard model is $420 each. And players can’t play without one. Your tax-deductible donation for our student-athletes and for Digital Harbor High School is much-needed and greatly appreciated.
*Note: to simplify logistics, the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association will be purchasing the helmets and donating them to the team.
Thank you!
The GoFundMe now stands at $7745 raised from 53 donations. Blanchard noted that donations exceeding the helmet costs will be used to line the fields during the season.
Blanchard will be the next District 11 Councilperson, after winning the Primary election in May. He is also currently the President of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association.
WMAR did a story on the team and donation drive. Watch the piece here.
Digital Harbor head football coach Craig Rollins said in the piece:
“A lot of kids are wanting to come out; kids that used to play want to play again; kids coming up from JV man, so it’s been a lot of kids, a lot of freshman, that showed a lot of interest, so yes, we’re definitely excited about that,” says head coach Craig Rollins.
He added:
“We basically ran out, you know, so at this point we have 60 something helmets, but we’re sitting on about 74 kids, to be exact, so we have some kids waiting for helmets at the moment, so once they get their helmets, they will get an opportunity to play,” says coach Rollins.
“It takes a village; the fact that this community is pouring into this school says a lot because it shows us that they care about the children,” says coach Rollins.
