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Support for STOKED
This back-to-school season, Box Tops and Yoplait are donating a total of $20,000 in Box Tops to two Los Angeles, California, area schools. The Inner-City Education Foundation (ICEF) Middle School in Inglewood and Jefferson Elementary School in Lennox will each receive $10,000.
At ICEF, many of the students come from severely economically challenged backgrounds.
The school’s athletic director, Lisa Finegan, and physical education (PE) teacher, Benito “Benny” Mendez, have worked tirelessly to bring the students new opportunities.
Recently, Finegan and Mendez launched a PE program called STOKED, which uses sports to promote leadership. Through the program, students learn new sports like skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding, while getting outside their comfort zone.
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“What’s so great about this is so many of these kids live close to the beach, but never had the opportunity to learn to swim. This program goes back to the very basics of teaching swimming to kids who live in this community,” says Kristina Lynch, assistant marketing manager, Box Tops for Education.
Mendez’s own story of becoming a teacher was one of the reasons Box Tops and Yoplait were inspired to give back.
As a child, he was encouraged by his PE teacher to try cross country running, but his family couldn’t afford the fees and equipment. So, the teacher said he would cover the costs. That teacher became a mentor to him, and they still keep in touch today. Now Mendez is the teacher encouraging his students to try new things.
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Together, Yoplait and Box Tops are donating to ICEF Middle School to enhance the STOKED program and provide gym equipment and supplies that their current funding could not provide.
