3rd and 4th Region athletes and coaches are joining forces for the ‘Our Athletes Care’ donation drive

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Athletic departments across the 3rd and 4th Region in Kentucky are coming together for the ‘Our Athletes Care’ program. Up until December 19th, schools in these areas will be collecting donations to distribute to families within their district for the holidays.

Greg Howard, District Athletic Director and KHSAA Board of Control representative for Regions 3 & 4, says, ”We named this ‘Our Athletes Care’ and now 3rd and 4th Region schools we’re trying to give back to our communities. Our athletes get a lot of support from the communities sponsors, and a lot of money comes through athletics and from people in the community. It’s really going to help our kids understand, ‘Hey, let’s give back,’ and hopefully, this is something that will last a lifetime.”

Every high school athletic department in the 3rd and 4th Region will be taking gift cards, food, clothing, and toys to distribute to families within their school district. Anyone within the community including local businesses can contribute. Logan County will be taking donations at the boys’ varsity game on Dec. 16th as well as at the school itself. Each school will be participating in different ways, so contact your local high school and ask about donating to the ‘Our Athletes Care’ program.

“Well we’ve reached out to our local coordinator here in the county, and like I said we have six schools and we’ve asked... we will be donating and traveling to each of those schools and to the resource centers. We’ve asked each of those resource centers at each of the schools to pick out one family that we can go visit and find some specifics of maybe what they need, and then we’ll go to that actual family in that community,” Howard says.

All donations gathered will be personally delivered before the holiday weekend.

In response to what Logan County will be doing, Howard says, “We’ll get on the bus and we’ll take athletes and coaches and we’ll go visit homes and schools throughout our community. We’re going to spend the whole day doing that. Our kids just get the opportunity to see what it’s like to be able to help other people. It’s a really great thing and I’m so proud of our 3rd and 4th Region schools stepping up and being a part of this program.”

‘Our Athletes Care’ is a program that Howard hopes to expand in the upcoming athletic seasons. He adds, “I’m hoping it just continues to grow. Maybe not just something that we’re doing around Christmas time. Maybe we have a fall campaign and then we have the winter campaign like we do now, and then have one in the spring because let’s face it, you know, there’s a lot of people just doing this once a year. Just one time during the year is not... it’s going to be effective, but I think we can do a better job if we split it up and maybe do it in three different seasons, also.”

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