Tough Sport Shows Caring Heart

Last month, Hope For The Warriors® attended the Fifth Annual NYC Rugby Cup – Presented by HSBC. Play Rugby USA, the largest rugby based youth development organization in the nation, hosted the event on Randall’s Island Fields.  Close to 900 middle and elementary school students competed in almost 200 games throughout the day.  In total, more than 1500 players and spectators attended the Rugby Cup.

Lead By Example

Hope For The Warriors® was invited to attend the event so that the players could write letters to combat deployed service members.  The first visitors to the table were Mark Griffin, CEO and Founder of Play Rugby USA, and John”JBL” Charles Layfield, the longest reigning WWE Champion in SmackDown history.  Layfield is a NYC Rugby Cup Ambassador and current financial analyst for Fox News.  

Throughout the day, children, parents and coaches stopped by the table to write a letter of thank you to American service members.  The letters were sweet, heartfelt, comforting and sincere.  Hundreds of cards were created that day by the boys and girls of Play Rugby USA.

Care Packages

Soon those letters will be in the hands of service members deployed to Afghanistan.  We worked with the American Red Cross and included the letters in care packages filled with of in-kind donations made by the public.  In speaking to service members, those letters make a huge difference to those who are deployed so far from home.

Thank you to Play Rugby USA and to all the players visited our table that day!