Volunteers of Denver-based Sports For a Cause, founded a year ago to help restore damage to amateur athletic facilities in the Gulf region, spent Thursday afternoon packing 1,500 youth baseball league uniforms headed to underprivileged children in New Orleans.
The nonprofit organization, the brainchild of former Metro Denver Sports Commission employer Brandon Tosti, received the uniforms from Denver-based XP Apparel. They are destined for the New Orleans School District, replenishing the baseball duds that were ruined or lost during Hurricane Katrina.
“I’m moved by XP Apparel’s generosity,” Tosti said.
Tosti, who currently works for Kroenke Sports Enterprises, founded Sports For a Cause after learning of the poor condition of New Orleans youth athletic facilities since the hurricane came through in August 2005.
“The pictures, I couldn’t believe it. It was destruction, and I felt compelled to help,” Tosti said. “I went down there one weekend, but after thinking about it, if I just went down once I’d be like everyone else. I thought I was young enough, naïve enough, to make a difference.”
He has done just that. Today marked the organization’s fifth athletic shipment to the New Orleans area. It previously donated $12,000 to the city’s biggest school district.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
