Three years ago, Matthew Wagonhurst founded the annual Santa Barbara Sports Drive, a local sports equipment and clothing drive designed to help get kids off the street and into sports, increase membership in the Boys and Girls Clubs, and recycle sports equipment. Through the effort he started, thousands of gently used or new pieces of sports equipment and items of clothing have been donated directly to over 1500 kids in the community. Now a Santa Barbara High School junior, Matt has recruited 40 of his friends – the Sports Drive Team – to help collect and distribute the items directly to kids from families with low incomes at the annual festive event. Matt and his Sports Drive Team have established a scholarship fund for kids to join the local Boys and Girls Club, developed a website: http://www.sbsportsdrive.com and an online toolkit to encourage other communities to hold local sports drives, recruited local business sponsors to help with overhead costs, and developed a video on the benefits of sports drives to communities.

Photos from last year: http://cbarreb.smugmug.com/Bikeevents/Other/Santa-Barbara-Sports-Drive/16198669_PNHnkX#!i=1216671258&k=W38Tt

Congratulations to Matt who received a Youth Impact Awards: http://cbarreb.smugmug.com/Bikeevents/Other/Youth-Impact-Awards-Feb-2012/21721043_G4DcpP#!i=1731859662&k=XFs6QWm