RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A Raleigh brother and sister, who started a nonprofit six years ago, just marked a major milestone. They have donated more than $2 million of sports equipment all over the world, and the nonprofit is growing.
At the Raleigh Boys Club, athletic director Rashad Herndon, teaches kids to play all kinds of sports, but sports equipment can get expensive.
“Sometimes you can’t afford to go spend $500 on basketballs,” he noted.
That’s where Andrew and Jocelyn Jung come in. The teenage brother and sister started the nonprofit Donate Sport six years ago, trying to make good use of used sports equipment.
“People in Raleigh have so much laying around they don’t really use, it’s so great to give back,” said Jocelyn, 16.
“At first we thought we were just going to do maybe a donation like once a month or something,” added Andrew, 18.
They can hardly believe how the organization has grown.
“It blows my mind so much,” Andrew said. “$2 million in used sports goods collected and distributed.”
The nonprofit is still growing. Andrew will start college at UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall and plans to start a chapter of Donate Sport there. Jocelyn will take over the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations from her family’s garage, which has become the headquarters and storage location for donated items.
Some donations are dropped in collection bins at local soccer fields. Others are brought to their North Raleigh home. The nonprofit also receives donations of brand-new gear from various companies.
The gear goes all over the world. The Jungs, who spend hours every week organizing and cleaning donated goods, say the experience is incredibly rewarding.
“It’s really so amazing when they send us back pictures of all the kids that received our soccer cleats and our balls that we’ve spent time collecting,” Jocelyn explained.
Andrew was particularly inspired by a story about a child from Uganda, who received a pair of cleats.
“It was his first ever shoes he’d received, and he was 9 years old, and he slept with the cleats on his bed,” he relayed.
But the gear doesn’t have to go far to make a difference. Donate Sport helps the local Boys and Girls Clubs and other local organizations. Some schools without budgets for sports equipment have also reached out for help.
At the Raleigh Boys Club, Herndon counts on Donate Sport for all kinds of equipment.
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“Anything sports wise you can think of baseballs, baseball gloves,” he said. “They gave me like 5000 pairs of socks; it was crazy.”
He says the kids are overjoyed to receive the equipment. He’s grateful for every donation, and for Andrew and Jocelyn Jung, whom he described as “a young man and a young woman just trying to show love.”
“We need more of that,” he added.
