Worthy Cause Countdown: Help These Disabled Students Play Soccer and Badminton

Each day from Dec. 14 through Dec. 25, GOOD Sports will feature a worthy school athletic program in need of funding.

Image via Grunksy Elementary/DonorsChoose.org.

The disabled students in Erin Knief’s class at Grunsky Elementary School in Stockton, California, love physical education and learning new sports. As Knief explains, “The special education students in my classroom love to get outside and practice their gross and fine motor skills through movement.”

She feels they would particularly enjoy badminton and soccer, two activities that would also increase their motor skills.

“Motor skills encompass a physical capability and a way of controlling that physical capability. The majority of my students have decreased motor skills and need all of the extra practice they can get. Soccer will allow for gross motor movement by running, kicking and blocking and badminton will allow for fine motor movement by picking up the birdie, serving and maneuvering wrist to hit.”

Grunsky Elementary, where 75% of the students are from low-income households, does not have the funding to provide the necessary sporting equipment, so Knief turned to DonorsChoose.org for donations. She was hoping to raise $596 to provide her students with soccer balls, a soccer goal, badminton rackets, shuttlecocks, and a net.

“Introducing these two sports, which they may never have the opportunity to play on a team, will allow them access to an instructional experience that will broaden their knowledge of physical education while practicing their gross and fine motor skills.”

Please consider supporting this project or another school athletic program in need.