Mission complete: CHAMPS Boston, Paul Pierce celebrate end of Million Hour Activity Challenge

Waltham, Mass. – Boston Celtics Captain Paul Pierce was the star attraction Monday as the Boston Foundation’s CHAMPS Boston initiative and Pierce’s Truth on Health Campaign celebrated an estimated 1 million hours of activity completed by thousands of Boston-area students in the Million Hour Activity Challenge.

Representatives from the youth groups that completed the most hours of activity during 2012 were recognized with more than $10,000 in grants during an event at the Celtics’ Waltham, Mass. practice facility. Pierce gave the winning organizations a tour of the facility and locker room, posed for pictures and even ran through some exercises with the winning organizations, who received prizes ranging from $250 to $3,000.

Photos of the winning organizations with their checks and of students on the tour with Paul Pierce are available for download until February 8, 2013 on the Boston Foundation’s Flickr page.

The winners included:

Large Organizations/Groups:
1st Place- Lawrence YMCA
2nd Place- PlayWorks
3rd Place- Cambridge Recreation Department (No photo)

Medium Organizations/Groups:
1st Place- Mission Hill Pirates
2nd Place- BeanTown Jumpers
3rd Place- JP Regan League

Small Organizations/Group:
1st Place- Catholic Charities
2nd Place- Holland Community Center
3rd Place- Seekers of Knowledge

 The Million Hour Activity Challenge was designed to promote health and fitness by engaging youth in a statewide effort to complete one million collective hours of physical activity. The goal is to inform communities across Massachusetts including youth, families, service providers and educators about the growing problem of childhood obesity, while uniting youth around a common goal to instill healthy habits for a lifetime. More than 4,000 kids from CHAMPS Boston and Truth on Health partner organizations across Massachusetts took part in the challenge – logging their hours throughout the year.

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CHAMPS – Coaches Helping Athletes through Mentoring and Positive Sports— is a sports-based youth development initiative of the Boston Foundation. Its mission is to ensure that every child in the city of Boston has access to high quality athletic opportunities — beyond school hours — including equipment and safe and clean fields, and that all youth coaches are of the highest quality and understand the fundamentals of youth development through sports.

The Truth on Health Campaign was launched by Boston Celtics Captain and 2008 NBA Finals MVP Paul “The Truth” Pierce and his foundation, The Truth Fund, to help empower and encourage young people to lead healthier lifestyles. The Truth on Health includes an awareness campaign and sustainable programming that teaches young people how to incorporate physical fitness and healthy eating into their everyday lives.

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with net assets of more than $800 million.  In 2012, the Foundation and its donors made $88 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of close to $60 million. The Foundation is a partner in philanthropy, with some 900 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.  The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener and sponsor of special initiatives that address the region’s most pressing challenges.  The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), an operating unit of the Foundation, offers special consulting services to philanthropists.  Through its services and its work to advance the broader field of strategic philanthropy, TPI has influenced billions of dollars of giving worldwide. For more information about the Boston Foundation and TPI, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.