Sports Basement

Charity Madness – East Bay Division

by Clair McDevitt, Interim online community manager

You’ve had a chance to review the East SF, West SF and South Bay divisions of our Charity Madness tournament, so your brackets should be almost complete. Here are the teams competing from the East Bay. Watch out, they’re fierce!

Partners in Educational Achievement K-12/Walnut Creek Education Foundation
Partners in Educational Achievement K-12 (PEAK) serves roughly 4,250 students from six schools in northeastern Walnut Creek, and is run by parents and volunteers from the community. SB is proud to be an ongoing supporter of PEAK. A long time partner of the Basement, Walnut Creek Education Foundation (WCEF) raises funds to preserve and enhance the education of students in the Walnut Creek School District and Las Lomas High School. These hard-working, volunteer parents ensure school dollars even when the state comes up short. WCEF is partnering up with fellow education foundation PEAK to take on the cuddly empires of animal foundations.

East Bay Animal Rescue and Refuge/Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation: Who doesn’t love a furry companion? Sports Basement is dedicated not only to helping beginner and pro athletes, we are also committed to pairing those athletes with companions. Sports Basement Walnut Creek has partnered with both East Bay Animal Rescue and Refuge (EBARR) and Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) to help people in our community find new additions to their families. In 2011, adoptions held at Sports Basement placed over 100 cats and dogs into forever homes. A number of these placement were to Sports Basement employees. Are you next?

Swim clubs: Walnut Creek Aquanuts, a world-renowned synchronized swimming club, has been in existence for over 40 years. They train novices to the elite, and place multiple athletes on the National Team each year, helping young girls reach their Olympic dream. Walnut Creek Aquabears, the biggest U.S. Swimming club in the East Bay, has provided excellent swim training for over 60 years. They produce many of the amazing swimmers that come from the Bay Area. Walnut Creek Masters is a non-profit organization that exists to benefit all interested adult swimmers serving the needs of athletes of all ages and at all levels, from beginners to former Olympic swimmers.

U.S. Armed Forces: Help cheer on the bravest and most courageous of them all, members of all branches of the U.S. military. They’ll be taking on local swim teams in the first round. These amazing individuals not only help better the lives of their enlisted personnel through education and career training, but they also don’t think twice before defending us on the front lines. Help support those who make us proud to fly the red, white and blue.

Emergency first responders: Who else would you want to cheer on other than those who protect and serve us everyday? Support your local police, fire fighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians as they take on the Girl Scouts in the first round. Our law enforcement and emergency medical personnel are awesome people who give back to our community everyday.

Girl Sco uts will prepare every eligible girl in America to become a responsible, courageous, participating citizen and leader who is guided by the Girl Scout Law. They will be bringing their crafty skills to the competition with big hopes of being a contender all the way until the last week of play.

Team In Training: Team In Training has trained over a half a million runners, walkers, triathletes, cyclists and hikers since 1988 and has raised over $1.2 billion to fund Leukemia and Lymphoma research. Participants bleed PURPLE and the GO TEAM chant follows them wherever they go, Team In Training is a fundraising monster with the ability to run the table!

East Bay Bicycle Coalition is committed to improving access to biking, walking and transit for all residents of the East Bay, with particular attention to those communities and areas that have been historically underserved. This organization’s goals are exactly what Sports Basement loves to support. They have a big challenge ahead of them but with their hard work and dedication, they will come out on top!

Clair is the interim online community manager and works in women's fitness at the Presidio store. She's a race walker, cyclist and avid Giants fan.

Posted on 3/10/2012 in Community Partners | Comments (0)