Jacksonville, North Carolina is a small city with just over 70,000 people, in close proximity to the Camp LeJeune Marine Corps base. Their Pop Warner program, the Jacksonville Storm, usually fields between eight to ten teams, in all age groups, and has over two hundred kids involved. It’s a huge part of life in Jacksonville for hundreds of families. But all that came grinding to a halt last September, when Hurricane Florence ravaged huge portions of the Carolinas. The Storm’s 2018 season had to be suspended for over a month, and when they came back, they could only play a few games. Their fields and facilities, not to mention many families’ homes, had been utterly devastated by the flood waters.
Coming back after a catastrophe like Florence is no easy task. So, when Arnica Washington, the president of Jacksonville Storm, started getting ready for this year, she knew it would be different. With families trying to rebuild their homes and lives, she wasn’t sure exactly how they’d get the Storm back in the game, but she knew that the kids wanted to play. Instead of two hundred kids, this season the Storm will have only sixty. Instead of eight or ten teams, they’ll field only three. But that’s ok. They’re here to play.
All of Arnica’s boys have played for the Storm over the years and she’s seen her fair share of fundraising hits and misses. So, she knew that when they sold over $8k in just four days with Double Good that they were doing something amazing.
“I’ve been doing this since 2012, and I’ve never had such great participation from the parents as we did in this fundraiser. And it was only four days, so I was very, very shocked. They’re super excited about this fundraiser; I think that we’re definitely going to do this every year.”
All that money will help get Jacksonville’s kids back in the game and show Hurricane Florence who the real Storm is.