From partnering with the girls’ soccer team to hosting a booth at the fall festival, Leveling the Playing Field (LPF) continues to engage the local community in hopes of receiving $1.5 million worth of donated sports equipment by the end of the year. With over $1.2 million worth of gear donated this year and an expansion to Virginia, Columbus and Albany in the works, the organization is growing at a rapid rate while still maintaining its strong community presence.

The LPF Greater Washington chapter is led by Daniel Griffin, who has been with the organization since 2021 and was working with the Washington Capitals until that point. Griffin partners with different students to lead events in order to develop leadership skills and gain experience in the nonprofit field.

On a large scale, LPF helped to found the Washington Coalition of Professional Women’s Sports, which includes the Washington Mystics, Spirit, DC Divas and DC Shadow. The coalition’s goal is to receive 5,000 sports bras and gather as much women’s sports equipment as possible.
LPF has had success in the immediate community as well. Senior Ryan Kunst has been active with LPF for months, working to collect equipment from neighbors, teammates and classmates since the summer. Kunst said, “LPF has really inspired my family and I to help out underprivileged kids in the area so they can have the same great opportunities that my brother and I had as kids. I was proud to be a part of the fall festival which brought in the most equipment out of any drive I have been a part of so far with over $12,675 raised.”

Griffin dropped off the LPF truck and delivered the gear back to the warehouse, but the students were in charge at the fall festival. Helping out Ryan Kunst was his brother, sophomore Matthew, along with sophomores Shayan Kurup and Jack Kerns. The group promoted the fundraiser all week and collected all of the donations at the festival.
LPF also partnered with the girls’ soccer team to collect equipment at drop boxes outside of five home games. This proved to be a success and LPF is looking to replicate this with teams in the winter and spring seasons.

“I volunteered at the fall festival and it was a great experience because I got to do a small task that meant a lot for the athletes in need. I would love the idea of the drop boxes at basketball games because I think we could get a lot of donations and raise a ton of awareness,” basketball player and sophomore Shayan Kurup said.

Around 300 organizations benefit from LPF donations. An organization or individual that wants to qualify for the equipment can fill out the grant application. One of the organizations that benefits from LPF is Impact Silver Spring. Impact is one LPF’s biggest with over 1200 students who receive equipment for different athletic programs. Every donation is appreciated. For example, recently a woman donated five sets of golf clubs that belonged to her late husband. A high school golf team that couldn’t afford any equipment received the clubs and were able to fully participate in the season.