Can you put a price on love? When it comes to in-kind donations you can!

Founder & CEO of Bridge II Sports, Ashley Thomas, does the math adding up these heartfelt and incredible gifts from organizations in our community! Check out the grand total at the bottom! WOW!

Share the Love…
In the world of non-profits, that is really the sauce that keeps us going.  Sharing!  Did you know that Bridge II Sports saves lots of precious funds through generous in-kind donations?
Last year we saved $103,409.50 in donated space by generous friends:

  • DoubleTree Hotel hosts our Board and Committee meetings
  • Laurel Hills Community Center – Raleigh Parks and Recreation have hosted wheelchair basketball since 2007! Thank you!
  • Bond Park Community Center –Cary Parks and Recreation have hosted Boccia for 11 years! Wow!
  • Lake Crabtree County Park – Home to the most accessible dock, and Valor Games SE Day 3!
  • Hillandale Golf Course – Hosted an event I went to. I asked if they would host adapted golf on a regular basis.  They said yes and have…for the past twelve years!
  • Durham Bulls Athletic Club let’s us hold the August Madness Draft in the beautiful Executive Club
  • The American Tobacco Campus and Durham YMCA host us weekly in the summer for our famous ‘Cage Ball’ Wheelchair Basketball Pick-up Games – Summer fun!
  • The Jewish Community Center Levin Gym in Durham is in the second year hosting Goal Ball, a sport for those who are blind and low vision.
  • Smithfield Recreation and Aquatic Center has generously been the home to HogWild
  • Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation provide space for our Tuesday Boccia practices

When Community steps up and donates space, it saves us a bundle.  But there is more!  We also get many donations of food and services too!
In 2019, we saved $95,190.13 in donated services:

  • Durham Coca Cola was our first donor at our first event in 2007. Since then, they have provided drinks for many events year-round…that is 13 years of gifts!  Thank you Durham Coca Cola!
  • Chick-Fil-A Hillsborough Road is across the street neighbors with Durham Coca Cola. They have donated fabulous food for many of our events in the last 13 years!  Thank you Miss Pamela and David!
  • Backyard Bistro joined the family of generous supporters when they hosted The August Madness Draft in 2012. Since then, they share their delicious bar-b-q and their staff donate the time to serve our Veterans at Valor Games SE!  Always a treat and appreciated.
  • Zippy Shell joined in our fleet of trailers and storage for the many pieces of equipment needed for Valor Games SE. Their folks get up at 4am to deliver cycles to Lake Crabtree so we are all set up for the race.  That is a gift!
  • The GO Triangle Family and Chapel Hill Transit have served our accessible transportation for 8 years at Valor Games SE, sharing the love and encouragement to our Veteran athletes. They are part of the success team!
  • Mission BBQ donated the picnic when our Veterans arrived! What a wonderful way to share the love–welcome to NC!
  • The Taylor YMCA in Cary joined this loving group last year hosting our first wheelchair basketball camp. The youth felt the love!
  • Dickerson Fencing has donated half the cost of the fence we need to put around K-Ville for the archery event at VGSE.
  • Rivals on the field of play, Duke and UNC athletics have generously donated space to host Valor Games SE sharing the love of sport with our Veterans.
  • For the last 4 years MetLife has been host of the VGSE Closing Ceremony on their beautiful campus. Boy do we feel loved while we sit under the tent on their great lawn!

Do you think we are done?  There is more love to share!

We also capture professional goods and services that are donated:

  • All-Star Bike Shop donates their time to fix our fleet of bikes each year to make sure they are road worthy!
  • Microsoft and MetLife donated technical and program services!
  • Durham Pistol and Rifle Club always purchase a piece of adapted equipment needed to support Valor Games SE and our air rifle and archery program. We couldn’t do it without you.

Those services added an additional $12,000 dollars to our programs.

 

GRAND TOTAL:  Drum roll please.  The love that was shared with Bridge II Sports, fees, items, services we DID NOT have to pay for was $211,878.13!!

That is a huge hug of love!
And this doesn’t even include the priceless contribution that all our amazing volunteers add in their in-kind sharing of time, energy and expertise!

Thank you to those who give freely to support adapted sport opportunities in our community.  You too can share the love joining in the fun.  Become a 360 Club Donor and sponsor an athlete who cannot afford to be part of our programs. $30 a month will support two athletes.  We do have families with two children who need our programs.  Share your love and give a gift of life through adapted sports.

Join me in sharing the love!

PS:  We do track well.  Thank you Gloria for keeping the details.  Thank you Mary for getting them down on our 990.  Yes, it is a real number.  🙂