The East Toledo Junior Football League, in partnership with Waite High School, will receive a $100,000 grant from the Cleveland Browns as part of the National Football League Grassroots Program.

The grant, awarded by the Browns, the NFL Youth Football Fund and Local Initiatives Support Corporation, is part of $2.5 million in field refurbishment awards allocated this year. It will be used to refurbish the natural grass field at Mollenkopf Stadium, where East Toledo Junior Football League teams have played for the last 40 years. It is also the home stadium for Waite High School, named for a former Waite and Purdue University coach, Jack Mollenkopf.

The NFL Grassroots Program, a partnership between the NFL Youth Football Fund and LISC, the nation’s leading community development support corporation, has resulted in the construction or renovation of 243 football fields nationwide in the past 13 years. During that time, the NFL Youth Football Fund has granted more than $30 million to revitalize playing fields in underserved neighborhoods. Fields are newly built or significantly renovated, with improvements such as irrigation systems, lights, bleachers, scoreboards, goal posts and turf. Grassroots grants are issued once established funding thresholds are reached for each project.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for Waite High School and the East Toledo neighborhood,” said Browns President Mike Holmgren. “We are pleased to expand our reach to the Northwest Ohio community and this project further illustrates the Cleveland Browns’ commitment to the development of youth football. We are certainly proud to be a part of this field refurbishment.” 

LISC identifies local, nonprofit, neighborhood-based agencies which have an interest in building or refurbishing football fields in schools and parks in underserved neighborhoods. Through the program, the local agencies are provided with the necessary financing and technical assistance to improve the quality and safety of fields in their neighborhoods. The local agencies oversee the construction, maintenance and programming of the fields.

“These fields are a critical part of our efforts to create sustainable communities – places where people want to live, work and raise families,” said Michael Rubinger, LISC’s president and CEO. “Through its contributions, the NFL Youth Football Fund is not only creating places for young people to compete in football and other sports, it’s also making countless neighborhoods better and stronger.”

Established in 1998 by the NFL and the NFL Players Association, the NFL Youth Football Fund seeks to use football as a catalyst to promote positive youth development, support youth and high school football needs nationwide and also ensure the health of grassroots football in future generations. Through the YFF’s youth football initiatives and support programs, youngsters are provided with opportunities to learn the game of football, get physically fit and stay involved in productive after-school activities with adult mentors

LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised more than $11.1 billion to build or rehab more than 277,000 affordable homes and develop 44 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide. LISC support has leveraged nearly $33.9 billion in total development activity.  For more information, visit www.lisc.org.

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