The third annual Play It Forward drive is fast approaching. The sports donation drive is scheduled for Sunday, May 7 from 4 to 6 pm at the LHS Gym Entrance.

To participate in the drive and possibly win four premium Red Sox tickets, it is asked that members of the community donate slightly used sports equipment. All equipment will be donated to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Derry. 

This drive has been organized by senior Nick Hamel for the past three years, with the first year being his sophomore year. After graduating, the sports drive will continue under the direction of freshmen Graham Killelea, Liam Killelea, and Jaylen Stott.

 Hamel was inspired to start Play It Forward after going through his old gear at home. 

“I had been looking through baseball gear over the winter looking at gloves and stuff like that and I realized how ridiculously expensive it all is,” Hamel said. “I mean it hit me hard then especially since I started to make money for myself and pay for my own things. It made me think of all the other factors that go into playing a sport, such as fees and it’s just so expensive, so I wanted to find a way to possibly reduce that cost.”

In an effort raise extra money to cover sports fees for kids, Hamel decided to take a leap of faith and reach out to the Red Sox to possibly get tickets to use as raffles.

“Getting the Red Sox involved was honestly a shot in the dark,” Hamel said. “I literally just emailed them not expecting anything back. I eventually got an email back. It was kind of funny too, because I didn’t reach out to any one specific. It was one of those ‘type your message’ here thing, so I really wasn’t expecting anything.”

The Red Sox in their email back to Hamel stated that they were “happy to help out” and thanked Hamel for his initiative. 

This year, the Red Sox donated four premium tickets which will be raffled off prior to and during the drive. All proceeds from ticket sales will cover children’s recreational sports fees in the community. 

The impacts of Play It Forward sports drive has already been made apparent throughout the community. Hamel’s favorite part of the drive is seeing the donated gear being put to use.

“It’s cool to see how much of an impact [Play It Forward] has made,” Hamel said. “Like for example, the baseball team as a camp every June for the youth kids and there was a kid at the camp who got a bat from the drive, so I thought that was pretty cool. He tapped me on the shoulder and was like, ‘Do you like my bat?’ which was amazing.”

For more information regarding Play It Forward, contact [email protected] and [email protected]