Despite a week of rain leading up to the event, the 7th Annual Work to Play Cup held last weekend at the Midway Plaisance was a smashing success! Each June this event celebrates our continuum of programming participants’ hard work throughout the school year. The Work to Play Cup is a blend of the world’s best field day and a soccer tournament — plus we add an awards ceremony and dance party as added bonuses!
Throughout the week, the UI team was holding its breath to see if the rain would hold off for the event, but on Saturday morning over 1,500 youth participants met up at the Midway Plaisance in Hyde Park for a day of fun and friendly competition. Although, many of our fields were flooded, we moved to a new area of the park and played on! Participants rotated through stations with recess games, small sided soccer, and lunch provided by Aramark. Volunteers helped to coach students, cheer on soccer players, provide logistical support, and serve lunch. 200+ volunteers came out to ensure the day was a success!
Many of these volunteers were our generous Team Sponsors. Team Sponsors provide the funds needed to support one school to attend the Work to Play Cup. Urban Initiatives was proud to have 45 Team Sponsors support our students at the Cup this year! In addition to our Team Sponsors, Urban Initiative is grateful to Target who was the Presenting Sponsor this year and brought out over 50 volunteers. Target has been presenting the Work to Play Cup for many years and they always come out with an incredible group of volunteers as well.
During the awards ceremony, Urban Initiatives gave out over 40 awards! Schools took home awards like the Heart, Hustle and Muscle Award and the Messi Award. Additionally, we awarded MB Real Estate with our Most Valuable Partner Award for their support of our programs. MB Real Estate have hosted our Team Captains at their offices, volunteered with our participants, and rallied their industry for support of our programs this fall. Finally, we honored the Winslow Family — a group of dedicated UI stakeholders — for their incredible contributions to Urban Initiatives over the last 15 years.
The Work to Play Cup is the best day of the year. It brings together so many UI stakeholders, participants, families, volunteers, and friends. We are proud to have such an incredible team of people coming together to help celebrate our participants. We can’t wait to see you all next year!