their goal was not to require kids to have to fundraise to help pay their dues. They wanted to take their mission of having kids work to earn a spot on a team or in an organization to local businesses and sponsors. “We wanted our kids to learn the impor- tance of handshakes and phone calls,” Lisa said, referencing the influx of time they spend on video games, texting and in front of other media. “We want them to learn more from the teamwork that this requires.” With the support of a major contributor, HD Financial, the Pink Panthers were able to start their season off on the right foot. But in turn, they then required all of the athletes to work off their dues and earn their spot on the team by giving back to the community. How they track and work off their dues is still a work in progress, Lisa said. But the boys on the team have worked as servers, dishwashers and bus boys at the Ur- ban Ecology Center. They have raised money for the Mukwonago ParkWalk for Cancer. They have shoveled snow and donated time to the D.H. Greenwald Center, a cancer treatment center in Mukwonago. “It’s not about asking parents for money for them to play volleyball,” Lisa said. “It’s about empowering the kids to do more and earn a spot on the team.” Clay Chalupsky, a player on the team, said using the real-world skills to coordinate events and approach adults in a businesslike manner have been very rewarding.
“One of my favorite moments was work- ing at a birthday party,” he said. “We were hired to set up, bus tables, wash dishes and clean up. At the end of the night, everyone was so appreciative of the work, the event coordi- nator from the site asked us if we would come back to work at additional events.” The Pink Panthers aren’t necessarily looking to add teams to their club, which only offered a boys 16s team this year. “We’re looking to share our model and motivate young people.”
Looking ahead To bring the Pink Panthers to a broader audience, Lisa is looking beyond just having volleyball clubs be her guinea pigs. And to bring this to the next step, there needs to be more resources put in place to the infrastructure associated with tracking dona- tions and community service hours. Lisa said they have considered creating an app that will allow athletes, coaches and com- munity organizations the ability to go in and log community service hours for the players. A hurdle that Lisa encountered is the culture of youth sports in general, not just vol- leyball, and how the tryout process operates.
BIG HEART: Erica Schwegman has spearheaded a campaign to raise funds to help under-privileged children in Haiti. (Photo: Courtesy Lakeshore Region).
Schwegman creates ‘Hearts for Haiti’ campaign
Erica Schwegman, who plays for Legacy Volleyball Club in Lakeshore Region, was spotlighted by Detroit television station WWJ for her creation of “Hearts for Haiti” cam- paign.
The high school junior is supplying skirts and shorts to under-privileged kids in Haiti, a region still recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2010. She has a goal to collect 500 items, and is 80 percent there with donations still coming in. Further, Schwegman is making customized bracelets that match the skirts with a heart charm to make the gift more personable. “We don’t realize how incredibly blessed and well off we are until you see poverty like this,” Schwegman told WWJ. “Making a difference can be an amazing impact and life experience.”
While most clubs require a tryout, fol- lowed by payment for the upcoming season, the Pink Panthers’ model doesn’t follow this. “What we would need is for athletes to ‘opt in’ in advance,” Lisa said.
That way they can assist in finding busi- nesses that will donate to the club and then they can start working off their community service hours in advance, she said. “It’s just a matter of framing what we cur- rently do in a new way,” Lisa said. All of the Pink Panthers’ parents have already seen the positive benefits of being a part of a club like theirs. “We have watched our son, as well as the other boys, grow in many different ways,” said Linda Chalupsky, mother of Pink Panther Clay Chalupsky. “They see the value of hard work. They feel the satisfaction of setting and reaching goals. They dream big and then work to make their dreams reality. Most importantly, they see that they can change the world around them.”
And the parents have learned a lot, too. “Suddenly we find ourselves thinking, well, if the kids can make this kind of change, certainly we can do the same,” Linda said. “It has been a lesson in having faith in our children.”
First season This year’s team has competed in a hand-
ful of Wisconsin and Illinois tournaments, including the Badger Region Championships, the Dale Rohde Memorial Tournament and the
May tournament in Kenosha.
The roster of athletes comes from all dif- ferent backgrounds, Lisa said, because some of these kids wanted to do something special for Tanya, not because they wanted to be a part of a volleyball team.
Six of the athletes play volleyball for their high schools, while others participate in base- ball, football and track. “It’s amazing to see how these kids have come together and have responded to having to really use teamwork,” Lisa said. And that teamwork has been demonstrated
on and off the court.
“I learned that when you put a team together for whatever reason, you can, with hard work, achieve a lofty goal, such as rais- ing $10,000 to help bring cancer treatment services to our town,” Clay said. “We live in a small town, but we have had a big impact in helping people from all around us, and that will end up helping our whole area.” Koehn agreed. “It is rewarding to work with your friends and know that you are mak- ing a difference in somebody else’s life,” the 16-year-old said. “It feels good to give back to a community that has been so good to all of us.”
And for Lisa Deppe, the first year has been
a success. “It’s just all about making sure these kids end up being better than me as a person,” Lisa said. “And it means the friendship that Tanya and I had meant something more.” — by Brian Sharkey, Badger Region
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