The Windsor Sports Scene by
In Play Magazine
(Windsor, Ontario, Thursday, March 10, 2011) – The ASSIST program should be able to help even more children from financially vulnerable families participate in organized sports now that it has been officially granted charitable organization status, according to one of its founders.
“Up until now we’ve had to turn money away from potential donors because we were unable to issue tax receipts,” explained ASSIST board chairman Mike Dugal. “Now that we can do this, we expect we’ll be able to collect more donations and ultimately help a lot more families.”
ASSIST is a grassroots group of people with a lifelong passion for sports committed to raising funds to help kids experience the joy of participating in organized games. Since its inception in 2007, ASSIST has raised thousands of dollars and helped more than 70 families by defraying some of their expenses so their kids could register to play in organized sports leagues.
The organization has relied mainly upon individual donations while many corporate donations were turned down because businesses require receipts for income tax purposes, a service ASSIST was unable to provide without charitable organization status.
The move has already borne fruit. Dana Young, a lawyer from Clarks Barristers and Solicitors, the law firm which handled the legal process of incorporating the organization celebrated the group’s new status by coordinating the its first tax-receiptable donation of more than $2,000 to the cause, which came at the recommendation of her 14-year-old son who plays hockey with a local minor association.
“We were happy to help out,” said Young. “ASSIST does so many wonderful things for our community and we wanted to celebrate the group’s new success by being the first to contribute in its new form.”
Earning its new status couldn’t have come at a better time. This Saturday, the group will host 24 Hours of Hockey, its annual premiere fundraiser, at South Windsor Arena. The format is simple: teams that register play in one-hour-long three-on-three games and a continuous tally is kept for each side. Players are required to submit a minimum pledge of $20 and previous events have generated average revenue for the association of about $10,000.
“We’re hoping that having charitable status may increase the amount of corporate donations that we’re able to accept for this and other fund-raising events,” said Dugal.
