PHOTO: Jonah German, Presient and Co-Founder of The Athlete’s Table, gets hands on at our basketball camp in Jericho.
If you’ve ever played on a sports team, you know the bond that comes from working together and competing as a team. For kids, it’s the perfect venue for life lessons like navigating conflict, building confidence, and dealing with disappointment—all disguised as fun. As you get older, a hobby that keeps you active can turn into deep relationships and a supportive community.
We know that sports are the way to many children’s hearts, and a great way to reinforce the core Christian values that inhabit everything we teach at Seeds of Hope. That’s why we were thrilled to relaunch some of our sports programs this summer through a new partnership with The Athlete’s Table.
Jonah German, President of The Athlete’s Table, first visited Seeds of Hope in 2016 to help serve at our annual summer camp. After launching The Athlete’s Table with friends, he was thrilled to come back and partner with us to host soccer and basketball camps.
“We are so happy to partner with Seeds of Hope and help run our “Hope in the Desert” camps,” said Jonah. “We provided sport and exercise opportunities for over 160 children in Jericho!”
The Athlete’s Table believes that sports can change the world. They leverage the shared language of sports to bring people together and impact communities by giving children better access to athletics and investing in local leaders.
While our long-term plans include adding a sports facility to the Seeds of Hope campus, we were able to leverage our existing relationships with the city to host our camps at municipal fields and courts. We saw an incredible response, and the demand to do it again is already high.
One of our focuses through the camps was giving young girls a place to play and practice sports—something that’s hard to find in Jericho. “Young girls in Jericho often face even bigger challenges in terms of finding opportunities to play,” said Jonah. “We were excited to host these two camps to help address that.”
There are currently no other basketball teams for girls in Jericho and very few options for soccer. More than that, Seeds of Hope is a place where parents feel safe to let their daughters come and play, which can often be a huge barrier in allowing girls to participate in sports.
We’re thrilled to continue this partnership and hope to expand our offering in the future as well. Sports are such an easy inroad to build relationships with the community, something that Seeds of Hope depends on to grow our impact. They also allow us to meet and impact a new demographic of people in Jericho. Older teenagers who may not be interested in some of our other programs might be eager to attend a basketball or soccer camp—especially with players and coaches from the United States.
With such high demand, we were thrilled with the success of our first round of camps. We look forward to growing these programs and our partnership with The Athlete’s Table as we continue to impact our community!
