Westfield High Students Collecting Bikes for Jersey Shore Kids, Win Disney Grant to Help Their Cause

Westfield High School seniors Andy Fromm and Danny LaCorte are collecting bicycles for kids at the Jersey Shore affected by Hurricane Sandy. To help them in their efforts, Andy just received word that his application for a Disney Grant for $1000 has been approved. The grant to Westfield High School through Youth Service America will be used to supplement their bicycle collection and help continue the athletic equipment drive Andy and Danny began this winter that they named “Play it Forward, it’s a Shore Thing.”

 “If we get a lot of bikes, we can use the $1,000 to get $20 gift cards for kids to get a helmet.  If we don't get a lot of bikes, we can get $100 gift cards so some kids can get a bike,” explained Andy.  Bicycles in safe condition can be dropped off at 882 Fairacres Avenue in Westfield until April 28.  The Fromm family is clearing out a section of their garage to store the bikes until the weekend of April 28.   “We will load up the trailer and head down to distribute the bikes,” said Andy.

Andy and Danny are coordinating their bicycle drive with the Sandy Family Match organization. They became familiar with the organization a few months ago when the two Westfield High students began their first collection of sports equipment for the Jersey Shore.  Andy recalled how it all began:  “During Winter break I had heard about a kid at the Jersey Shore who lost everything.  He had made the LAX travel team but his parents said he couldn't play because they lost everything and didn't have money to buy the expensive equipment.  I knew I could help as we had some LAX equipment in our garage.  I started thinking if I could help, I am sure there were many more kids at the shore that would need replacement equipment.  So many people wanted to help out the people at the shore but didn't know what to do. This project was perfect because everyone could give a little bit to help out. I talked with Mr. Hynes (Community Service Club Advisor at Westfield High School) and Mr. Renwick (Principal) about my idea of collecting sports equipment to help out these kids.  They liked the idea and let me put a donation box in the lobby and gave me a closet to store all donated equipment.  I reached out to the Mayor of Monmouth Beach, the PTO and school officials.  I was also put in touch with the coordinator of Sandy Family Match to help out.  The kids needed the equipment in early March, so we set the delivery date to be March 2nd.  

I posted all the info on Facebook, got info to our PTO and they posted it on the WHS page.  Word spread fast and pretty soon I was getting lots of emails and people were dropping off equipment at my house.  The town baseball league sorted through all their equipment and donated thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment.  I started looking for info on the web and found email addresses and places to apply for grants.  I reached out to Walmart, Dicks, Sports Authority, Adidas, STX, the Pollination Project and also found the YSA Disney's Friends for Change grant site. I put in phone calls to Prince Tennis Sports Company, too.  The only ones that offered helped were STX and YSA/Disney. On March 2nd, I loaded up my father's trailer, his truck and our family van with over $20,000 worth of sports equipment. My friend Danny LaCorte, my brother Alex and my parents went down to the Monmouth Beach Parish Center. We unloaded, organized sections of the church by each sport and had a room filled with cleats and sports shoes.  All day long kids showed up and got to pick out stuff for the sports they were going to play this spring.  Coaches came to get supplies for their teams.  When the day was over, we packed up the remaining equipment and drove it to Union Beach.  We left the trailer there and a parent distributed the remaining equipment to kids in need.  Easily over 200 kids got equipment. A couple of weeks later, I learned that our school was awarded the YSA/Disney $1K grant. The rules with the YSA/Disney grant were that I had to do this project the weekend of April 26th.  Many kids were asking for bikes when we were handing out the equipment.  I thought if I got the grant, I would use it for a bike drive.”

Andy’s and Danny’s Facebook link for the bicycle donation project is https://www.facebook.com/events/469344326470231/.

Or email Andy Fromm at andy.fromm@yahoo.com or call 908-233-8136.