From the Desk of Angie Jeffords: Access is Personal to Me

From From the Desk of Angie Jeffords - December 19, 2022

Dear Friends of the PLAY Boulder Foundation,

The idea of access is not abstract to me. It’s deeply personal.

As a child growing up in Boulder, I remember going out to dinner with my dad. My father has a Ph.D., was a professor at CU Boulder, and was on both City Council and served as a County Commissioner. He is also blind. And somehow, despite arguably being the smartest guy in the room, we would sit down to dinner at a restaurant, and our wait person would inevitably ask, “What would he like for dinner?” as if he were a child or not actually sitting there.

Even as a child, I understood that assumption that a person with a disability or a barrier is less intelligent and less capable. That they are less deserving of opportunity or of dignity.

As I grew up, I discovered that I too would become blind. I have faced my own barriers to independence. The myths and misconceptions about blindness are part of the challenges I face in my daily life. 

So, I take the pillar of Access at PLAY Boulder Foundation very seriously and I am, as you might imagine, very motivated. And we hold the idea of access to extend to both physical and financial barriers. We do much work in this area, but one is particularly urgent this season.

Our PLAYpass program provides a voucher to assist with tuition for recreational activities (think: soccer, ballet, karate, swim lessons), so that local youth who might not otherwise be able to afford these activities can still participate. Families receive not only the vouchers, but help with breaking down all the other barriers we at PLAY Boulder have identified that keep their kids from playing: our staff helps with translation services, registration, advocacy, as well as DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) education to the service providers. This program provides ALL the resources these families need to give their children an equal opportunity to play, to make friends, work with teams, and to be physically and emotionally healthy. 

For the past 4 years, PLAY has received grant funding from the “sugar tax,” also known as Boulder’s Health Equity Fund (HEF). In addition to decreased funding for 2023 from this tax, we already have enormously increased demand. If we do nothing else to find resources, we will have to decline the requests from 150 applicant families whose kids want to participate in sports and other activities. We will have to say, “Sorry, not this season.”

This is a great example of what the PLAY Boulder Foundation was created to do. Obviously, we all pay taxes that support basic parks and recreation opportunities. The key word there is “basic.” In fact, the incredible recreational opportunities we get to enjoy here are much better than basic. PLAY Boulder Foundation raises money to enhance and improve on the basics that the city and tax dollars alone can provide.

We are also tasked with including more kids to play better – in other words, building better access.

Please help our community through PLAY Boulder Foundation this season by considering sponsoring one or more families to send a kid to play. Sponsoring one kid to participate and supporting our staff to provide all the assistance needed to get the kids there is $250. 

I am asking you to consider supporting one or more families, and making the most generous gift you can to help a kid get off the couch and onto a field, into a pool, or into the dance studio.

Thank you for your consideration and your gift. Please click here to make a donation.

Let’s give the gift of PLAY!

-Angie Jeffords

P.S. We would love your help to say yes to every one of the 300+ families who have requested assistance. Please consider sponsoring a family at the $250 level. The PLAY Boulder Foundation is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organization.