Pitch In For Softball’s first Signature Project kicked off in April 2018 in Chicago, Illinois! PIFS worked with representatives from the Chicago Public School system to identify 20 high school softball teams that were in need of equipment. This project was generously funded by Wilson Sporting Goods, one of our major strategic partners.
PIFS will have three Signature Projects throughout the course of the calendar year. Our Signature Projects are unique in that the partnership for each Signature Project is a three year commitment with the respective partner. In addition to that, these partnerships have scalability over the course of three years and measurable impact to communicate back to the partner and our donors.
The day kicked off with a packing event with Wilson Sporting Goods employees! Nearly 40 employees from several different departments at Wilson started off by breaking down all of the boxes of equipment and sorting it by equipment type. Wilson employees worked together to then pack up the 20 team kits of brand new equipment being provided to the high school teams. The team kits included an equipment bag, helmets, softballs, catcher’s gear, fielder’s gloves, bats, arm sleeves, and batting gloves.
Later in the day, five of the schools attended a distribution event hosted at Wilson Sporting Goods brand new headquarters in downtown Chicago. Several players and coaches from each of the five schools got to enjoy spending time at the headquarters and then unpacking their new bag of equipment! Employees from Wilson also hand delivered equipment to two additional schools the following week. The donation totaled more than $30,000 worth of brand new gear and helped over 400 girls in Chicago get the gear they needed to step on the diamond this spring! Thank you Wilson!
   
   
  