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Dec, 2024

Highlighting Stars in the Community: 2024 Community Star Award Nominees

Within the Pop Warner family, some of the most inspiring stories transcend the football field and cheer mats. The essence of community is deeply embedded in Pop Warner's roots, stemming from the desire to provide young individuals with a structured environment fostering both athletic engagement and character development. Today, the organization's influence continues to reach far beyond the realm of sports, with Pop Warner teams and individuals actively contributing to meaningful change in their communities – from organizing park cleanups to raising funds for local causes.

This year’s Community Star Award celebrates these outstanding efforts, recognizing Pop Warner associations that exemplify the spirit of service and community impact. Through this award we’re able to highlight remarkable stories of associations demonstrating dedication, creative solutions, and collaboration in their work to make a positive difference.

While we’re inspired by all of these nominations, one award winner will be selected during national championship week in Orlando.

Book Smarts

The Kekaha Pop Warner association has partnered with the Waimea Pop Library to collaborate on a Pop-up Library Book Fair. This collaboration encourages these players the importance of reading off the field and playing hard on the field, which is a great nod to Pop Warner’s emphasis on scholastics. On the first day of the fair, the Waimea Public Library brings books to the fair, while Kekaha Pop Warner is set up with tents to host its athletes. These athletes can browse interesting books and are encouraged to register for library cards. It’s an effort to make a positive, lifelong impact on these kids, one book at a time.

Hawk-Eyed

Taking a page out of several pro teams’ playbooks, the Merrimack Hawks formed Hawks Cares as a branch dedicated to giving back to its community in meaningful ways. In 2024 alone, Hawks athletes have adopted and cleaned up a local road, hosted a community Easter egg hunt, organized a clothing drive for families in need, and conducted school clean-ups to prepare for the new school year. The association also plans monthly service events, from writing Christmas cards for nursing home residents to supporting charities like St. Jude's and Boston Children’s Hospital through lemonade stands.

Hurricane Relief

With Hurricanes Helene and Milton severely impacting to many areas of the United States fall, there are a few associations that stepped up to help with relief and recovery. The Harmony Longhorns collected donations to personally deliver to Western North Carolina in an effort to help residents’ lives return to normalcy and to provide them with much-needed items they were unable to receive locally due to the devastation. Meanwhile, Oceanway Sports Association also held food drives and collected donations to give back to those who were affected by the hurricane.

Responding to Tragedy

The Naples Hurricanes came together to support local families through a fundraising drive after a tragic automobile accident cost the life of a mother, sent her child into a coma and injured a friend. Meanwhile, Merrillville Pop Warner devoted a halftime to honor the memories of two program alums that had passed away; the children had not even graduated high school yet. The association had the kids’ jerseys framed and made a presentation to each family, remembering them and the countless contributions to their Pop Warner program.

Fathers and Father Figures

In a collaborative effort with the City of Fort Myers and the Children’s Advocacy Center, the Fort Myers Jr Firecats hosted a Breakfast with Dads event that included a parenting class, guest speakers and other sessions that focused on developing positive male role models. The event, which drew over 300 participants, was open to fathers, uncles, brothers and grandfathers. The kids were allowed to attend as well to create a true bonding experience.

Community Appreciation

The Greene County Pop Warner Lady Panthers have spent the fall season saying “thank you” to the local businesses and community members for all their financial support. The program decorated Christmas trees that were being auctioned off to raise money for the Fortnightly Club of Catskill; they’ve also donated various items for auction at the Spring Fling and Catskill Mountain Feis hosted by Farrell's School of Irish Dance, we helped the Catskill-Cairo-Durham Booster Club raise money by donating a basket to raffle off at their Senior Night event, the girls have performed/marched in local town parades. Over the summer, they served in the concession stand for Cairo Durham Little League games.

Around the Country           

To serve underprivileged kids within their community, the Addison Cowboys work with local school district 4 and Indian trial on mentoring and doing student check-ins. Leaders with both the association and the schools work collaboratively to make sure all students are performing on and off the field meeting and exceeding expectations.

The Lower Perk Longhorns spent the month of October fundraising for Unite For Her, which supports breast cancer and ovarian cancer patients and initiatives. Not only has the cheer organization sported pink bows and socks during game, but they also have been selling shirts and sweat shirts, as well as running a 50/50 fundraiser, with all proceeds going to Unite For Her.

Lowville Raiders Pop Warner collects food donations and holds a fundraiser annually to help support the Lowville Food Pantry, as well as two area schools.

Vista Ridge Youth Sports is giving back to the community. Instead of simply selling items, the athletes visited an assisted living community, donating food and clothing to shelters and other organizations, writing thank you cards to volunteers such as coaches, and other teams.

Fairhaven Acushnet Youth Athletics participate in several initiatives, ranging from volunteering at school events to stocking food pantries to cleaning its local parks.

Shout Outs

There were additional nominations for individuals, including coaches and administrators. While this award is intended to recognize associations, we are always appreciative and grateful of the good work individuals volunteers, coaches and athletes do with their programs and in the communities. Thank you! 

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Pop Warner Little Scholars

P.O. Box 307 
Langhorne, Pennsylvania 19047

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