By Staff
EAST LANSING – Members of the West Michigan Officials Association will be involved in a different set of games today, when they join patients from the DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids in a Vision Impaired Sports and Activity Day at Wealthy Elementary School in Grand Rapids.
The event is part of the support the WMOA provides for DeVos Children's Hospital through the Officials For Kids program a charitable initiative of the Michigan High School Athletic Association in conjunction with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.
At the inception of the Officials For Kids programs, work was centered on fundraising efforts by local officials associations to improve children's health care at Children's Miracle Network Hospitals around the state. The heart of that initiative has been the Give-A-Game program, where members of an officials association donate one night's game fees towards the cause, increasing awareness for the Officials For Kids program while generating support for the Children's Miracle Network.
Today's program, which begins around 8:30 a.m. and runs until noon, will have members of the WMOA engaged with visually-impaired youngsters as they take part in activities such as biking, crafts, goal ball, beep baseball, obstacle course, climbing wall, karate, horse riding, and swimming. The WMOA's support also involves the Children's Burn Camp at DeVos Children's Hospital.
The Officials For Kids Program takes on a local focus at each Children's Miracle Network Hospital in the state. In addition to the efforts to benefit DeVos Children's Hospital, Officials For Kids recently launched a program at Beaumont Hospital in Detroit called Referees For Reading, where monies raised help fund a pediatric ward book cart, and officials give of their time to read to children. At Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Officials For Kids donations will go towards Camp REACH, which fights childhood obesity. At Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Officials For Kids has been raising money towards the construction and maintenance of a new Pediatric Emergency Room and Waiting Room.
Officials For Kids began in early 2003 as a small group of mid-Michigan officials dedicated to the future of children's healthcare and the Children's Miracle Network. The ultimate hope for the program is that officials personal &association pledges, along with participation in fundraising events and initiatives, will make Officials for Kids a name synonymous with the continued improvement of children's healthcare across the state.
For more information, visit the Officials For Kids page of the MHSAA Web site – www.officialsforkids.com.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,800 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition.
No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools.
Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.