Generational Equity Sponsors Town North Swimming Outreach

This Spring, as we began to look at how we wanted The Sports Fan Network blogs to give back to the community, we knew one avenue would be enabling more young people with access to sports. So recently we began to solicit corporate sponsors to do exactly that.

With the recent turn in economic events, our initial pitch to potential sponsors was to provide a small fund that would sponsor children of parents who had recently been laid off or lost their jobs to continue in their sporting activities. The sponsor we identified was Generational Equity of Dallas, TX.

Generational Equity was introduced to us as a company rich in philanthropic activity which includes the funding of an orphanage in Nigeria, a Belize faith based mission, and support for fighting colon cancer. Generational Equity also has several ex-collegiate athletes including a member of the 1989 SMU Mustangs football team (the first year after the death penalty).

When Generational Equity agreed to sponsor our initiative, we began to evaluate organizations that could help us connect with the right child athletes. One on our short list was the Dallas Area YMCA Town North branch. Upon reviewing their scholarship programs, we were introduced to an eight-week swimming program they offered that helped provide essential swimming skills to kids who, for a variety of reasons, couldn’t swim.

Though the exposure to a swimming program at the YMCA could serve as inspiration for a child to take up the activity as a sport, we were more convinced that the donation would be put to good use as 100% of the participants would leave the program with essential skills that could mean survival in the right situation.

Town North YMCA Swimming Out Reach

On June 18th 2009, I had the pleasure of spending the morning with Diddy Fullbright and Micaela Gomez on site at their swimming outreach program at the Sierra Vista apartment complex in North Dallas. Sierra Vista was one of the two apartment complexes they selected to reach out to this year.

“Our residents are primarily Hispanic and 95% have children”, commented Margo Rodriquez, manager of the Sierra Vista apartments, “We have found that a large percentage of our resident adults do not know how to swim and do not have the ability to teach their children. This summer, we set out with the YMCA to do something about it.”

The YMCA program conducts four daily swimming classes at the apartment complex’s pool. The classes began this week and run Monday through Thursday until August 9th.

“Between our 2 separate outreach programs, we have over 50 kids learning vital swimming skills. The parents are responsible for a $15 fee for the entire program and the rest is paid for by a donation from Generational Equity,” commented Micaela Gomez of the Town North YMCA. “Each child starts the program with a skills evaluation and finishes the program with a follow up evaluation to measure progress.”

The class that I attended had participants ranging from 3 to 14 years of age that had little to no swimming skills. One very young child had Down’s Syndrome and it was very touching to see the smile on her face as she made progress in one of the water exercises.

Swimming: Sport and Survival Skill

Swimming is a sport that has been put on the world sporting radar screen by the greats who have represented their countries in the Olympic games of the modern era. In a 2006 post, though dated with regards to Michael Phelps, the Top 10 swimmers of all time are highlighted. Swimming is also a sport accessible to all via community and school programs that take transform young people into competitive athletes. However, in addition to being a sport, swimming is a fundamental skill that can be a means of survival for children and adults alike.

Town North YMCA

Town North YMCA was established in 1958 and provides sports related programs for children and adults in the greater Dallas metroplex. Town North YMCA is part of the Greater Dallas YMCA.

Generational Equity

Generational Equity is based in Dallas, TX and is the leader in Merger and Acquisition Services, Business Evaluation, and Exit Strategy Planning for middle market businesses worldwide. Generational Equity provided sponsorships through MidwestSportsFans.Com and DallasSportsFans.Com for the 2009 Summer Swimming Outreach Program by the Town North YMCA of Dallas, TX. Generational Equity has offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Connecticut.