North Park Annual Appeal

To All North Park Families,

As we near the conclusion of our 31st season, I am reaching out with our annual “funding gap” appeal for support of North Park. This is critical to our ability to provide need-based financial aid, and it is an important variable in determining our tuition rates for the upcoming season, which we notably held flat last year.

First, a big thanks to all who contributed last year, as we were able to raise over $70K to fund our financial aid program in full and build a small cushion in our bank account. We are hopeful that we can broaden the donation base this year, and we encourage you to contribute in whatever amount you can.

As a not-for-profit in what has become a sea of for-profits in youth sports, our primary mission is to create a lifelong love of hockey in our players. To that end, we have a few key characteristics that are increasingly unique in youth sports, and in hockey in particular:

• a talented and loyal group of non-parent head coaches (several who have been with North Park longer than any current parents and some now becoming parents in the program!)

• focus on optimizing hockey time (i.e. skating-intensive training, balanced practice-game ratio, metro area leagues, a couple of travel tourneys to highlight seasons versus an all-encompassing way of life that crowds out everything else)

• protecting family time over holidays

• priority on education and commitment to other extracurricular pursuits when off-season

Our coaches and teams are also producing strong results on the ice. For the first time, all 8 of our teams in the HVHL earned a spot in the playoffs. No other club in the HVHL produced this level of consistency this season.

All that said, we are also continually challenged by the realities of operating as a not-for-profit youth hockey club in New York City. In addition to increasing our ice footprint and overall investment in coaching this season to support two additional teams and an expanded Travel Mites program, we also increased our investment in need-based financial aid.

Looking forward to next season, we are hopeful to be adding ice at a new 2/3rds size rink in Long Island City in October. This facility will add more local, less crowded practice ice for all ages as well as incremental competition ice for our younger ages. Stay tuned on further details on this initiative.

You can make a secure contribution by credit card using the link below:

Donate to North Park

You can also send a check to “North Park Hockey Association” to attention of Chris Ooten at 145 East 92nd Street, Apt 3C, New York, NY 10128. If you are using a charitable fund, North Park’s 501(c)(3) tax ID is 13-3593808, and the club’s official address is 120 West 45th Street, New York, NY 10036. However, please do not mail/direct checks to this address. Please use the 145 E 92nd St address, if possible. If you are required to use the 120 West 45th St address, please let us know.

Finally, we will donate a portion of our annual appeal proceeds this year to an effort being spearheaded by parent/commissioner/coach Rick Lipsey to build a locker room for the Kenya Ice Lions, an inspirational story about hockey changing lives in East Africa. An article today in ESPN highlighted this great story, with reference to North Park:

ESPN: Kenya Lions - North Park

Sincerely,

Chris and the Board