TPYSF donates $125,000 to Kids Inc. facility campaign
The Texas Panhandle Youth Sports Foundation (TPYSF) on Wednesday at an event at Hodgetown donated $125,000 to Kids Inc. toward their new facility, which is planned to be built in south Amarillo near Hollywood Road.
Kids Inc. has been gifted 90 acres of land by Loop 335 and I-27 to construct the Rockrose Sports Park complex, a multisport facility that will host baseball, softball soccer and track for youth athletes across the Texas Panhandle, with about $18 million raised out of the $30 million goal toward breaking ground on the facility.
Jimmy Lackey, CEO and president of Kids Inc., has been a part of major projects for the rural communities of Dalhart, Hereford and Elk City, Oklahoma. The Rahll Activity Center in Dalhart is the newest completed project that Kids Inc. has been involved with.
Lackey said that it was important for his organization to partner with TPYSF to have more venues for kids to play softball, baseball and other sports without travel barriers.
“This is a culmination of a collaboration with us and the Texas Panhandle Youth Sports Foundation to bring more venues for kids to play youth sports in Amarillo,” Lackey said. "This gives parents an opportunity to not have to travel all over the city for their kids to play multiple sports. I am extremely grateful for this substantial gift and collaborative partnership that we have now established.”
He said that partnerships like this are extremely important for the type of endeavor that his group is undertaking.
“We are working together for the same cause, to help kids and parents in the Panhandle," Lackey said.
He said that being 60% funded at this point bodes well for the completion of the project after a year of fundraising. To not service any debt, no work will be done on the facility until the total funds for the facility are raised.
Asked about why people should donate to make the facility a reality, Lackey said he would hope that people think back to when they were a kid and what these types of facilities would have meant to them.
Jason Herrick, a board member for TPYSF, said that this donation is important to the mission of his organization.
“This venue is a really unique offering to the area for the community,” Herrick said. “This will give us nine more fields that we can use year round for our leagues. We need as many fields as possible for our programs. Kids Inc. will maintain the fields, and it gives us so many more options for the youth of the Panhandle.”
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: TPYSF donates $125,000 to Kids Inc. facility campaign
