PRICE, Utah — Teenagers in two different counties are demonstrating that anyone can champion efforts to help their community.
Residents in Carbon and Emery counties hosted the 3rd annual Giving Bowl, a flag football tournament fundraiser to help feed families in need this Thanksgiving.
“It’s so special to be able to hand deliver meals and like see all these people having fun,. It’s really special,” said Allie Smith, a senior at Carbon High School who took over hosting the event from her brother, Jackson. “My brother started it three years ago, and then I’ve been taking it over while he’s been on a mission.”
Hundreds of people came to the event Saturday morning. This initiative grows every year, with more people stepping in to help.
“It’s so important to me because I know some of these families personally. They’re great people, and it’s amazing that I’m able to help them,” said Kelsey Norton, a senior at Emery High School.
Last year, the teens raised $2,500 to give out 22 meals, 11 angel trees and three full Christmases for kids. This year, they’ve already surpassed that dollar amount, even before the tournament started. They’re hoping to raise over $5,000 to give out more meals this holiday season and spread more cheer.
This truly is a community effort. Thirty teams participated in the tournament. Spencer Hepeworth, Eric Holt, and Cameron Jones played on teams and came early to help out.
“Just to help out, you know, do your part,” said Holt. “Small actions make a big difference,” Hepeworth added.
Referees volunteered their time.
“It makes me feel good. I remember being young, starting off with a young family, and needing the help here and there and getting that help, and I always thought, man, how grateful I was for it,” said James Brad Sowards, who was one of the referees. “So it makes me feel like we are making a difference and we’re helping those that are in need of it.”
Businesses donated the prizes to help buy more meals for families.
“It’s like, close to home, and we’re small counties so being able to help in any way is really important,” Smith said. “There were a lot of special experiences that I’ll never forget.”
If you would like to help feed more families in the area, you can Venmo Patty Smith (@bear_necessities)
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
