SUPPORT FIYA'S MISSION
Dear FIYA Families, Friends, & Members of the FIYA Community,
I have been involved with youth sports for over 25 years in various capacities and the one that still provides the most satisfaction is my role as co-founder and executive director of FIYA. In our 12th year (and even after a pandemic that canceled most operations), FIYA continues as a non-profit organization to provide young student athletes throughout Los Angeles County with varied interscholastic sports. Our mission of strengthening schools through sports is alive and well and I humbly request your support of our mission during this holiday season as more schools and school districts participate in FIYA.
Prior to the pandemic, I felt we were on the verge of explosive growth. Now that the pandemic restrictions are behind us, we are feeling the rumblings of a numbers explosion once again. While this is obviously exciting news, we need to ensure we have the capacity to serve over 10,000 student athletes from all over LA County in the coming year. We have two wish categories for which we are looking to strengthen and therefore are setting $30,000 as our overall development goal:
- Equipment/Awards – we know that having good equipment significantly helps our game day operations. We have an ambitious goal to have portable outdoor scoreboards for our flag football and soccer leagues. Seeing a game clock and a score gives a more structured feel to the game. In addition, in light of our mission statement, we are creating All League Academic Awards to inspire the student athletes to excel in the classroom. Consequently, we are allocating a goal of $20,000 to assist in this area.
- Referees/Game Operators – the combination of the pandemic reducing the number of referees available along with the impact of inflation, and that other organizations such as CIF have increased their referee pay, has caused FIYA to increase our referee budget. In addition, we continue to seek out employment amongst our teen population to assist as scorekeepers and field supervisors. In order to keep pace with minimum wage requirements, we need to increase our budget here as well. Consequently, we are allocating a goal of $10,000 to add to our referee and game operator budget.
FIYA DONORS & TIERS
$10,000 +
Chuck & Carol Dailey
Drollinger Family Charitable Foundation
LA84 Foundation
Porteous Family Foundation
S Mark Taper Foundation
$1,001 - $9,999
DirecTV
Flowserve
John Mueller
Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation
Thomas Ricondo
UCLA Health
US Soccer Foundation
$251 - $1,000
Eugene Mueller
The Gaardsmoe Family
James Kawahito
Jacob Mueller
Jayne Pimlott
Judie Holland
Mallory Rawson
Milan Mueller
Mike and Dona Rawson
The Kindest Company
$101 - $250
Anthony Tolbert
Edgar Rios
Giustina Scionti
Isabelle Yanchulis
Jason Hirschman
John Farren
Jonathan Rawson
Joseph Bozzuti
Meg Balian
Monica McAllister
Robert Farren
Sarah-Doe Osborne
Todd McCullough
$26 - $100
Boris Suarez
Chris Coyle
Debbie Mollner
Delia Munoz
The Dombrowski Family
Ian McAllister
Jason Hirschman
Julia Leamy
Kate Girod
Kerry Grove
Liz Pimlott & Kat Moon
Marc Naylor
Mary Kate Reid
Mike Pimlott
Monica Salcedo
The Westside Golf Collective
$1 - $25
Alex Reale
Annie Cipiti
Charley Grove
Christina Bragg
Courtney Gaardsmoe
Connor Munro
Jeff Muir
Jennifer Appling
Katelyn Ecker
Kelly Park
Lauren Freedman
Lindsey Gaardsmoe
Maggie Miller
Mary Conner
Milan Mueller
Miranda Curry
Richard Brandon
Rachael Leamy
Victoria Trepany
On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff of FIYA, I sincerely thank you for visiting this page and for your interest in contributing or getting involved with FIYA. Join us in our ongoing fundraising and help us reach our Giving Tuesday goal of $10,000 and our annual goal of $30,000 by the end of the year. See below for more details on our fundraising goals, how you can help, and how your donation can make a difference.
BEST WISHES,
John Mueller
CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
WHY YOUR DONATION MATTERS
- eSports kept kids in the game who could not return in-person
- Basketball returned for the full 2022 season with 118 teams
- Soccer returned for the full 2022 season with 100+ teams
- Boys Volleyball returned for the full 2022 Spring season
- Track & Field hosted 6 meets with 700+ student-athletes
- Cross Country hosted 7 meets with 400+ runners
- Girls Volleyball served 10 regional leagues with 100 teams
- Flag Football had 9 regional leagues with 58 teams
- Futsal started a new league in the Fall with 7 teams
- AND MORE after-school offerings to look forward to in 2023!
- 10,000 students participating annually throughout Los Angeles County
- 80% of FIYA student-athletes are students of color
- Over 33% are female
- 50% reside in neighborhoods that are of low to moderate income
- Majority of students from families that do not have the resources for “club” sports
THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS WHO'VE REPRESENTED THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS THUS FAR!
American Martyrs
Beverly Vista Middle School
El Segundo Middle School
St. Jerome School
MORE ways to get involved
We believe that donating or sponsoring a charitable cause can be very personal, having purpose and significance both for our organization but also for our donor. In that spirit, FIYA has various ways in which you can donate or contribute to your most desired preference!
Check out the listed items below to see various other ways to get involved or additional means of donating to our cause. Keep in mind each of our individual sports programs and offerings are open for sponsorship opportunities as well. To learn more about our sponsorship program, email FIYA Director of Communications Mallory Rawson at malloryrawson@onfiya.org
Throughout every sports season, you may see FIYA members at your gym or field capturing the action on camera! One way you can give back is by purchasing photos of your team in the form of a donation. See a photo you like on our website or social media?
All of our photos are always available for purchase individually or in the form of a team package, but team packages are most cost efficient and highly recommended. Once purchased, the photos can be used for school assets like yearbooks or marketing purposes or for personal reasons like team banquets and individual keeping for your student-athletes and parents. It's a unique way for our students to remember the season for a lifetime!
If you're interested in purchasing photos of your school / team or would like to see what we have available for purchase, please email all photo inquiries to malloryrawson@onfiya.org.
Do you have an Amazon account or make purchases via Amazon? Support FIYA by linking your Amazon account to FIYA as your charity of choice! From there, every eligible purchase you make, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price to FIYA via Amazon Smile at NO COST TO YOU. It's a simple set up process that takes no more than 2 minutes and Amazon will do the rest! Every bit adds up! We've included step-by-step desktop AND mobile instructions below on how you can link FIYA to your Amazon account.
STEP-BY-STEP DESKTOP INSTRUCTIONS:
- Sign in to smile.amazon.com on your desktop browser
- Hover over "Accounts & Lists" and Under "Your Account", select "AmazonSmile
- Under "Pick your own charitable organization:"
- Type: "Foundation for Interscholastic Youth Athletics"
- Select FIYA as your charity of choice and you're done! Your donations will be received after you shop.
STEP-BY-STEP MOBILE INSTRUCTIONS:
- Sign in to smile.amazon.com on your mobile browser
- Scroll to the very bottom of the page and select "Your Amazon Smile"
- Under "Pick your own charitable organization:"
- Type: "Foundation for Interscholastic Youth Athletics"
- Select FIYA as your charity of choice and you're done! Your donations will be received after you shop.
If you would like to donate specific needed materials for our individual sports programs or organization as a whole, check out our Amazon Page and every purchase will go straight to the FIYA headquarters.
Simply check out the public "FIYA Wish List" on our page or the various lists for each particular sport we offer and purchase an item of your choice that you would like to donate today! If you don't see any items available for purchase but would like to still donate this way, please email malloryrawson@onfiya.org.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND INTEREST IN CONTRIBUTING TO THE FIYA COMMUNITY!
