First-Ever 'Game On Gala' to Benefit Youth Sports Across the DMV

All right, welcome back. Coming up on 1015 this morning, and it is game on for a great cause. The local organization Fight for Children hosting their first ever game on gala tomorrow in D.C. You can expect an interactive night celebrating the power of youth sports while also raising money to help more kids get into the game. So joining us with more, our CEO of Fight for Children, James Koleski, Monumental Sports and Entertainment's Brian King, as well as Kids on Ice, Jordan Graham. Thank you all for being here with us. So talk to us a little bit about this game on Gala, first ever one that you guys are having tomorrow night, right? Yeah, absolutely. Right here, Washington-Hilton. Okay. And, you know, we're raising money for kids. One of the things that's happening over the past couple of decades is getting involved in youth sports has just gone through the roof. Average family spends $1,000 a year or more to get their kids involved in high-quality sports programs. But... Thankfully, there are programs like Kids on Ice that don't charge fees, and at Fight for Children, what we do is we bring together all of those local organizations that are doing this great work, and we have over 43 organizations serving 46,000 kids across the district that do not charge families a dime to come in and participate in these awesome sports. Oh, that's fantastic. So tomorrow's gala. It's about raising money so that we can filter it right back into our coalition, and we fund them through grants, and we do trainings and coach education. So it's going to be a great time. Yeah, all under one roof in one room helping to raise money for these kids. Talk to me a little bit about what an experience like this does for kids when they're able to go into a sport program and not really have to worry. The family doesn't have to worry about the financial aspect of it. It's a great cause. It's a great opportunity for the kids because they get to come out of whatever situation they have at home and just have fun and just let go of whatever burdens they have to make friends, have fun, make a few laughs, make friends with the coaches. Just have a great time with Kids on Ice. Yeah, we know how transformative sports can be for kids and their well-being as they're growing up. Brian, talk to me a little bit about what people can expect coming out to the gala tomorrow, because it's not, you know, your everyday gala, if you will. There's going to be a lot of interaction. It's super interactive, and one of the things we'll be doing is our top shot will be having a couple sticks, like I'll give you here. Oh, okay. And everybody will be expected to take a puck, like what is right there, and you'll be able to take a shot on a net, which is right there. All right. So we're actually going to dive in. Getting straight. Okay. What I want you to do is put that, that left hand, I want you to, right hand. Is there like a golf situation here or what? Yeah, we're going to put this hand down here, that hand up here, maybe bring it down a little bit more. Okay. We're going to come up to the puck here and all I want you to do is look at the net and take a shot. All right. Can we do that? Ovi, watch out. Ovi, watch out. How far? I don't want to hit you. Oh, no, you're good. You're good to go. You can expect tomorrow. How far am I going to go back? Okay. Back out. That's better than me. Jacqueline, there will be actually 11 different activities you can participate in when you come tomorrow. There's no sit-down banquet, chicken dinner. You run around to all these different activations. Professional athletes will be there. There's basketball, baseball, golf simulators. So it's really a great time to come and network and hang out and have some fun. Oh, my goodness. This sounds like my kind of gala. This sounds like a lot of fun. I mean, what do you think? Do you show up in this like a full gown or what? No, you show up in a little casual. Hotel attire, sneakers welcome if you'd like. Perfect. So this being your first gala, I mean, what prompted you all to finally move to this step in your efforts to help with children and getting them into sports programs? Yeah, well, Fight for Children's been around 35 years, and we were the hosts of Fight Night, a very successful gala here in Washington, D.C. that raised millions of dollars, And we gave away over $45 million in grants at that time. But when we started that in 1990, it was easy for a kid to go sign up. You'd see a team playing on the field, and the coach would be like, hey, give me your name, see you tomorrow, kid. And nowadays, it's not that way. So our board... Change to really support getting kids off the wait list, getting kids back in the game through these awesome nonprofit organizations six years ago. So that's what inspired us to bring everybody together. We have elected officials, we have athletes, we have corporate and community funders, philanthropists, and the stars of our show are our 43 organizations. Yeah, that are out there doing this incredible work. So they'll be in the room with us. Over 500 people will be joining us tomorrow. That's awesome. What's the reality look like for kids that are in need of a program like this where the finances just aren't there for them? Well, the reality is it's so important for the full development of the child. It's not just the physical dimensions of self. It's mental health. It's education, it's crime reduction, keeps kids out of trouble. They're more likely to stay in school, they're more likely to stay out of trouble, and more likely to stay healthy. For example, one of the programs that we ran with Brian in Ward 8 at Garfield Elementary School, we started a before-school program, so parents could get off to work early, kids came. These kids that came to that particular program, showed up over 90% of the time compared to a district-wide 65% attendance rate. So they came at 90%, and every single one of their grades, of course, went up. So sports is an economic development program at the end of the day. And a personal development program at the end of the day. Obviously, we're talking about kids here in the D.C. region, but is this a wider aspect that you guys are looking at as well with your organization? Yes, yes. We are in the DMV. We have programs in Virginia. We have plenty of programs in Montgomery County. We're just now moving into Prince George's County and setting up shop there. And we're just looking for fantastic nonprofit organizations that don't charge kids fees, that train their coaches, and go out there and make an impact in education. Health and, you know, personal development. Brian, what do you hear from the kids when they get to take part in these types of opportunities where maybe they necessarily haven't been able to do so in the past? Yeah, obviously, you know, hockey is a sport that's not usually provided to everyone. But through organizations like Fight for Children and District of Play over at Monumental Sports, we provide an opportunity where we can engage the youth through sport. We actually connect with parents and coaches, and then obviously we create a safe space for our athletes to actually thrive through sport. Um, and specifically with hockey, uh, playing hockey growing up, you know, the locker room was always a great, a great space for me. Um, and it kind of transformed my life as well. Yeah. Making lifelong friends, learning lifelong lessons. There's where you can find more information. If you are interested in gala, excuse me, gala tomorrow, do people, do you still have tickets available? If they want to, we have a few tickets available, but if you go to fight for children.org, you can find out information about the gala and I'm sure you can follow them, support them there as well. If you're not able to make it to the gala. Guys, thanks for joining us here this morning. It was fun. I'll take a few more shots. I'll be back. You're going to try? Here's another plug. Yeah. Three, two, one. Just do it. All right. That's good. Am I left or righty?