The fourth month for the Get in the Game program has come to an end and we would like to extend our congratulations to American SCORES Boston for their win in December’s contest.

We would like to thank all of you who voted, shared the links and otherwise support the campaign for December. We will be resuming team profiles soon as we prepare to kick off January’s contest.

If you have a team you are particularly passionate about, then we hope you’ll consider nominating them for Get in the Game. The process is easy, just fill out as much information as you have available on our nomination form and we will take care of the rest.

Happy New Year!

As we get ready to welcome a New Year it is time to not only say good bye to 2010, but to the fourth month of the Get in the Game program. One week of voting is all that separates us from a winner who will receive a package of two dozen custom embroidered fleece blankets to use however best suits their organization.

Don’t forget, the one who nominates the winning organization will also receive two of the blankets that we embroider for their nominee.

Here are the nominees for this month’s contest:

After you’ve voted, we’d love it if you could tweet it out or share this on Facebook, especially if the organization you voted for has a page. Also, if you are on Twitter, we have put together a quick message you can quickly copy and paste to let people know that you participated:

I just voted for my favorite team in @adirondackblog ’s Get in the Game campaign. You too can vote thru Jan 7th: http://cot.ag/fRSIhc

The voting poll will stay in our sidebar until we announce the winner on January 8, 2011.

Thank you very much to all who nominated organizations for the month of December and we at Adirondack Fleece wish you all the best in the New Year. We hope 2011 is a great one for you all.

We look forward to learning about even more great teams in January. Be sure to get your favorite organization nominated today!

The final nominee for the December 2010 edition of Adirondack Fleece’s Get in the Game program is America SCORES Boston.

The mission of America SCORES Boston is to empower youth in Boston communities through an innovative combination of soccer leagues, writing, creative expression, and service-learning into a single after-school program. With teamwork as the unifying value, SCORES inspires youth to lead healthy lifestyles, be engaged students, and become agents of change in their communities.

In the 2009-2010 season, Boston SCORES will serve 1,500 Boston public elementary and middle school students, ages 8-14, in after-school, summer and winter programming. Twenty one percent of Massachusetts K-12 youth are entirely unsupervised in the afternoon (Afterschool Alliance, 2006).

Youth who are not enrolled in after-school programs during these hours are 50 percent more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol, 3 times more likely to skip classes, and 5 times more likely to be “D” students according to theAfterschool Alliance, 2007. Through its mission America SCORES Boston keeps these youth safe and supervised during the high-risk after-school hours.

Additionally, in communities in Massachusetts, the childhood obesity rate is 35 percent (Mass. Health Policy Forum, 2008). Children are also not getting the exercise they need. The students attending Boston schools with SCORES programs attend physical education class only 45 minutes each week in elementary school, and 115 minutes per week in middle school (Boston Globe, 2009). Over the course of the SCORES program, SCORES participants get the exercise they need by practicing and playing soccer every week.

The next nominee in the December 2010 edition of the Adirondack Fleece Get in the Game program is Let’s Move.

The Let’s Move! campaign, started by First Lady Michelle Obama, has an ambitious national goal of solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight. Let’s Move! will combat the epidemic of childhood obesity through a comprehensive approach that will engage every sector impacting the health of children and will provide schools, families and communities simple tools to help kids be more active, eat better, and get healthy.

Mrs. Obama began a national conversation about the health of America’s children when she broke ground on the White House Kitchen Garden with students from a local elementary school in Washington, DC. Through the garden, she began a discussion with kids about nutrition and the role food plays in living a healthy life. That discussion grew into the Let’s Move! campaign.

At the launch of the campaign, President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum creating the first ever Task Force on Childhood Obesity to conduct a review of every single program and policy relating to child nutrition and physical activity and develop a national action plan to maximize federal resources and set concrete benchmarks toward the First Lady’s national goal.

The Task Force’s recommendation focus on the four pillars of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign:

1. empowering parents and caregivers
2. providing healthy food in schools
3. improving access to healthy, affordable foods
4. increasing physical activity.

This problem can’t be solved just by passing laws in Washington. It’s going to take all of us—governors, mayors, doctors, nurses, businesses, non-profits, educators, parents—to tackle the challenge once and for all, so Let’s Move to end the epidemic of childhood obesity together.

Today’s nominee is Adirondack Fleece’s Get in the Game program is the Kids Sports Network USA. KSN is a unique nonprofit association totally dedicated to the enhancement of non-school youth sports.

KSN provides education and support to volunteer coaches, parents and administrators, by publicizing the benefits of sports participation to the public, by acting as a clearinghouse for youth sports information and by conducting a variety of special events and programs.

Their mission is to promote quality non-school sports and fitness for children between the ages of 3 and 19 through the education of coaches, parents and administrators; special events and activities; public awareness and regular networking.

Most youth sports experts will tell you that improving the knowledge, attitude and coaching ability of the individual who is working directly with the kids, is the most important action a youth league can take. The Kids Sports Network provides coaches education in many different sports. Their coaches education program is focused on making volunteer youth sport coaches aware of their responsibilities to provide for the psychological, emotional and physical needs of children on their team.

Here are just a few of the services that Kids Sports Network provides:

• Coaches’ Training: Conducts coaches’ certification training for thousands of volunteer youth coaches annually in Texas and throughout the nation.
• Spurs Youth Basketball League: Manages a socially themed youth basketball league for nearly 20,000 kids that is conducted by youth organizations throughout San Antonio and South Texas.
• Volunteers: Recruits adult volunteers to assist with youth related activities at Spurs games and other special events.
  High School All-Star Football Game: A special game played in May featuring outstanding San Antonio high school football seniors from the previous fall season.
• Summer Golf Camps For Kids: Gives 7-14 year olds an opportunity to learn the fundamentals, rules and etiquette of golf in a fun one-week summer camp.
• Summer Hoops: Manages a unique basketball league for teenagers that was adopted and implemented by the USAF and numerous San Antonio area youth associations.
• Abuse Prevention Seminars: Provides Child Centered Sports Abuse Prevention Seminars and kits.

The voting period for November’s Get in the Game contest ended last night and we would like to extend our congratulations to the Fall Creek Cougars for their win.

We would like to thank all of you who voted, shared the links and otherwise support the campaign for November. We will begin profiling organizations for the December contest starting early next week.

If you have an organization that you are particularly passionate about, then we hope you’ll consider nominating them for Get in the Game. The process is easy, just fill out as much information as you have available on our nomination form and we will take care of the rest.

The third month of Get in the Game has come to a close. One week of voting is all that separates us from a winner who will receive a package of custom embroidered fleece blankets to use however best suits their organization.

Don’t forget, the one who nominates the winning organization will also receive two of the blankets that we embroider for their nominee.

Here are the nominees for this month’s contest:

• Fall Creek Elementary Cougars
• AYSO, Region 980

After you’ve voted, we’d love it if you could tweet it out or share this on Facebook, especially if the organization you voted for has a page. Also, if you are on Twitter, we have put together a quick message you can quickly copy and paste to let people know that you participated:

I just voted for my favorite team in @adirondackblog ’s Get in the Game campaign. You too can vote thru Dec 7th: http://cot.ag/f36v09

The voting poll will stay in our sidebar until we announce the winner on December 8, 2010.

Thank you very much to all who nominated organizations for the month of November.

We look forward to learning about even more great teams in December. Be sure to get your favorite organization nominated today!

Two contests down, two contests to go. The latest of our outreach contests to promote our Get in the Game campaign has gone live today over at Suburban Scrawl Reviews. Our good friend Melisa (with one s), a mother of two boys active in lacrosse, is hosting this contest for us from now until 11:59PM on Tuesday, November 23, 2010.

Over the past few years, there has been lots of talk about making cuts in programs which, in my opinion, are very, very important for growing kids: sports and music. Due to institutional budget cuts as well as the state of the economy itself, which causes families to have to make some of the same budget cuts in order to keep food on the table, organizations are looking for more help than ever to ensure survival.

Our lacrosse club is an expensive venture for anyone who wants to be a part of it, and I’m not just talking about the equipment. (Have you SEEN the prices on lacrosse equipment? Sheesh!) Because lacrosse is not a school-sanctioned sport in our area, the families have to pay higher premiums: we’re paying the coaches, renting the fields and buses (to away games), and restocking team-shared equipment (goalie nets, balls). One of the ways we can keep our registration fees from increasing by crazy percentages each year is to fundraise.

To read the full post and enter her contest, click on over to Suburban Scrawl Reviews and follow the rules to enter for a chance to win a package of 17 custom embroidered fleece blankets. The prize is split with 15 going to the youth sports team of your choosing and the remaining two shipped directly to you.

Also, just a quick note that if you have already won one of our blogger outreach contests (either at Mocha Dad or This Full House Gone Shopping) your organization isn’t eligible to win again. However, you can always nominate them for our monthly Get in the Game contest.

Our second month for the Get in the Game campaign has come to an end and we would like to extend our congratulations to Pitch in for Baseball for their win in October’s contest.

We would like to thank all of you who voted, shared the links and otherwise support the campaign for October. We will be resuming team profiles soon as we prepare to kick off November’s contest.

If you have a team you are particularly passionate about, then we hope you’ll consider nominating them for Get in the Game. The process is easy, just fill out as much information as you have available on our nomination form and we will take care of the rest.

The second of our blogger outreach contests to promote our Get in the Game campaign has gone live today over at This Full House Gone Shopping. Our good friend Liz, a mother of four active kids, is hosting this contest for us from now until 10AM EST on Monday, November 15, 2010.

Adirondack Fleece has launched an awesome campaign called Get in the Game to help raise awareness for the funding crisis that youth sports teams and athletic associations are currently experiencing.

Raising 4 kids, attending 4 different schools (yes, in the SAME school district) I am very proud to be able to participate in the campaign, by hosting a very special giveaway, while helping to spread a little fleecy warmth towards your favorite charitable cause or organization!

To read the full post and enter her contest, click on over to This Full House Gone Shopping and follow the rules to enter for a chance to win a package of 17 custom embroidered fleece blankets. The prize is split with 15 going to the youth sports team of your choosing and the remaining two shipped directly to you.

Also, just a quick note that if you have already won one of our blogger outreach contests your organization isn’t eligible to win again. However, you can always nominate them for our monthly Get in the Game contest.