SPF Holiday Camp Chicago Rec Sports

There is little room to doubt the recent spike in cost of virtually everything in the aftermath of COVID-19. If most things have not doubled in price- they are fairly close. Keeping this in mind– we must navigate the space of providing programming and ensuring staff are still taken care of.

We take pride in the community that has been established and this community includes all families, players, participants, and staff that help make everything happen. We have wanted to extend a helping hand to the community and recently, a hand reached back.

We received the following email from CRS parent, Malaise Hall:

“Good morning,

We spoke last week about a possible scholarship/grant for my son, Ethan. He is 7 and loves all sports activities. He asked if he can do the Winter Sports Camp and I had to tell him we couldn’t afford it this time. Right now it’s just me as a single mother of one and I’m the primary caretaker. I’ll be forced to be off work during his winter break which will put us even more behind financially. I was hoping we could get a scholarship/ grant for the Winter Camp so that I could still work and he could be happy about doing something he likes so much which is sports. Thanks for taking the opportunity to consider this request.”

We appreciate Malaize’s sincere and heartfelt message that we would like to recognize as requiring immense strength and vulnerability and we applaud her efforts. Were it not for this message- we may have never known that Ethan wanted to participate in Holiday Camp. For Malaize– having access to sports is important because it is where Ethan has the most fun playing sports with his teammates and she is able to work while he has these experiences. It was Ethan’s experience with Track, something he tried for the first time with CRS, that made Malaize reach out. Although Ethan’s favorite sport is basketball, he and Malaize felt that Coach Jerry truly cared about the kids and was a great motivator when the kids were struggling or tired. Malaise wanted Ethan to be somewhere they both liked and we are grateful they chose us! Ethan became the first Holiday Camp Scholarship Recipient of 2022!