Positive Tracks-Have You Heard of Them? #cbhm #cbhm2016 #VT #NH #LebRecreation #VermontTourism #halfmarathons #WoodstockVT
CBHM supports local youth athletics and we applaud the efforts of Positive Tracks!
Their mission is simple: To help young people get active and give back using the power of sport.
The dream? A large-scale movement powered by active, engaged young people using their own sweat to tackle global challenges, starting with themselves, starting in their own backyards.
This vision demands real youth transformation so that young people, once they’ve been touched by the power of their own sweat, wear a “sweat for good” lens for the rest of their lives. Our model is unique at Positive Tracks. Multiple organizations focus on developing youth philanthropy through teaching grant-giving expertise, and many organizations involve youth in fundraising for their own missions through athletic events. But there are no organizations combining these two outcomes at the meta-level, to build a new culture. We’re teaching kids to give back to any worthy cause through any compelling athletic activity – for the sake of learning the benefits of philanthropy, both to themselves and to the world.
The end goal is an inclusive infrastructure that unifies nonprofit sectors, allying diverse funders, youth, and charities behind a common cause. Rather than slicing up one pie and arguing about who gets the bigger piece, we wanna bake new pies!
It all started With Cam. . .
The Positive Tracks concept was conceived in 2009 at the CHaD Hero Half Marathon at a community rally for a nine year-old young leukemia patient named Cameron Marshall. It rained that year at the CHaD HERO, hard. So hard that the inaugural Cam’s Course lost power and sound. But hundreds of families showed up to run for Cam, anyway. Cam was seriously ill, but he came too, and was carried through the finish line by his school principal to the sound of hundreds of his friends humming Chariots Of Fire. That moment revealed how an athletic effort can be a powerful gesture of hope, a compelling means of supporting a friend and the worthy organization helping him.
The inaugural Cam’s Course evidenced how one act can lead to large-scale community action. The fact is: people want to help people. Kids want to help kids.
Sometimes all it takes is identifying a physical action that stands as proof of human compassion. Cam’s Course, and community reaction to Cam’s Course, planted the seed for Positive Tracks and the GOmentum Positive Tracks builds inside the hearts of young people and their supporters.
The following year CHaD was awarded a Positive Tracks Youth Challenge Grant that doubled dollars raised by CHaD Hero Half Marathon participants age 23 or under. Young people were given “fundraising wings”, so their efforts made significant impact on a community – and a cause – close to their hearts.
When CHaD Hero Half Marathon participants successfully met the $100,000 Positive Tracks Youth Fundraising Challenge, enthusiasm and support grew to include additional partners receiving Positive Tracks Challenge Grants and supporting tools and coordination. In 2011, The Dempsey Challenge, benefiting The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing in Lewiston, ME, became the second founding Positive Tracks event partner. The Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle Ball Tournament in Jericho, VT, joined Positive Tracks as its third charitable event partner in 2012. In 2013, Positive Tracks entered five new partnerships with Grassroot Soccer, Lacrosse the Nations, Ride2Recovery, Turtle Ridge Foundation and Additive Adventure By Majka Burhardt. In 2014, Soccer Without Borders,Playworks, Mote Marine, Let’s Get Ready and Big City Mountaineers and The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp came on board and Positive Tracks became a 501(c)(3).
In 2015, Positive Tracks partnered with 12 charities to empower young people across the nation and in multiple countries, too. In 2016, we broaden our reach beyond our Charity Partner program to engage and empower youth across the country via Sweat For Good Campaigns and Good Sweat Camps and Curriculum, Tools and Resources, and Blog.
Cheers to this great organization!