An effort to provide dozens of metro Detroit schools with flag football supplies is underway, and the fundraising campaign could mean a trip to Super Bowl LIX for a lucky donor.
The Detroit Sports Commission and GENYOUth , a national youth wellness organization, have partnered to launch the Rally For Good campaign.
The initiative via the online fundraising platform Alltroo began during the NFL Draft in April and will close Aug. 2. The winner of the rally will be announced Aug. 21 and will get a trip to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans in February.
All proceeds will help provide flag football starter kits for up to 140 middle schools across Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties as part of GENYOUth's NFL Flag in Schools initiative .
More: Female athletes, coaches push hard for flag football in Michigan schools
"We’re excited, especially given all the momentum that flag football and girls flag football has right now, including debuting in the Olympics in 2028," said Ryan Chryst of the Detroit Sports Organizing Corp . "We thought it was a great opportunity to reach across the three counties and offer something directly for the youth.”
The Detroit Sports Commission launched the partnership with GENYOUth after introducing its Living Legacy initiative, which, according to a news release , was designed to "promote literacy and sports, with a special emphasis on empowering girls in sports across Detroit and neighboring communities."
The partnership supports that mission by helping foster the growth of girls' flag football across the state .
Each kit comes with 50 flag football belts, 10 footballs, one air pump and curriculum for gym teachers. Anne Marie Krautheim, CEO of GENYOUth, said an estimated 77,000 middle school students could be impacted from the kits. Krautheim also mentioned how important it is for girls to stay in physical activities during their middle school ages.
"We know that girls in particular drop out of physical activity and sport at twice the rate of boys by the time they reach middle school. So that helped us to hone in on the middle schools in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county," she said.
The kits are expected to be delivered to middle schools during the fall, adding to 270 other schools in Michigan already enrolled flag football programing. While the campaign is expected to be awarded to tri-county middle schools, Krautheim said the application process for schools across the country will start up during next year's NFL Draft.
As the sport continues to seek sponsorship to become a varsity sport in the state, Chryst believes that providing the flag football kits to the middle schools could be another step in the right direction.
"Certainly I think we’ve been very intentional in terms of communication with the high school state association," Chryst said. "... And we thought that the draft and the girls flag initiative can be a stimulus to how the state high school association could potentially think about sponsorship."
The last day to enter the Rally for Good campaign for a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl LIX will be Aug. 2. The winner will receive two tickets to the Big Game and have flight and hotel accommodations for the trip.
For a chance to enter, visit Alltroo.com/flag .
Eric Guzmán covers youth sports culture at the Free Press as a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support this work at bit.ly/freepRFA .
Contact Eric Guzmán: eguzman@freepress.com; 313-222-1850. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @EricGuzman90 .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Super Bowl ticket giveaway part of flag football fundraiser for Michigan schools
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