Empowering underprivileged children through the gift of sports equipment, providing them with equal opportunities for growth, inclusion, and personal development.
About P.L.A.Y.S. Foundation (Promoting Leadership in Athletics and Youth Sports)
Founded by Arya Jamkhandi and Aanya Singh, rising juniors at Saint Francis High School, the P.L.A.Y.S. Foundation is all about using sports to make a difference. As varsity athletes, Arya and Aanya know how much sports can teach — from leadership and communication to building confidence and staying active. Their mission is to give underprivileged kids access to gently used sports gear so they can experience the same benefits.
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What We’ve Done So Far
This past year, P.L.A.Y.S. has made a strong start:
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We donated over 90 pieces of equipment to the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, helping kids in afterschool programs who live in areas without access to safe play spaces.
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We also completed a successful drive for the Honduras Child Alliance, donating over 100 pounds of sports equipment to support girls in underserved communities.
Thanks to help from Saint Francis coaches and athletic director Mr. Wilburn, we collected gear right on campus. We've also teamed up with local supporters — donation bins are now at Sunnyvale Sports Basement and Valley Church in Cupertino.
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What’s Next
We’re planning another equipment drive focused on supporting girls in Honduras, and we’ll be putting up community flyers to get the word out and expand our reach. Our goal is to keep growing and keep giving — because every kid deserves the chance to play.
My name is Arya Jamkhandi and my co-founder is Aanya Singh, and we are both rising juniors at Saint Francis High School, in Mountain View California. I play soccer, and Aanya plays tennis. Growing up playing sports, we have forged a deep connection with our sport, and attest to the fact that playing and competing has helped us become better people. We believe that sports should be a part of all kids' lives, because it builds vital communication, leadership, and confidence. Playing a sport doesn’t just help skills on the field, it also encourages growth off the field in the real world. Unfortunately, not all people are fortunate enough to afford expensive equipment and gear, which is where P.L.A.Y.S. Foundation comes into play.
Our foundation, P.L.A.Y.S, which stands for Promoting Leadership in Athletics and Youth Sports, wants to change that. Our mission is to provide underprivileged kids with used sports equipment to promote physical health, leadership, and self-confidence. Another one of our main goals is to create inclusive opportunities for personal growth and community engagement through the gift of sports. By invoking the help of our communities, we are able to level out the inequity that poverty creates, and donate equipment to underserved and underprivileged communities. We recently just completed our first drive, in which we donated about 90 pieces of equipment to the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, which will use the proceeds to help kids in their afterschool program, which caters to kids who live in an unsafe neighborhood.
We set up the drive in Feb'24 at Saint Francis High School, which we attend, and with the help of our many coaches and Mr. Wilburn, our sports director, we were able to place deposit boxes in order to collect that equipment. In the coming months, we also hope to start our second drive, which will help girls in Honduras play more sports and gain leadership and communication skills. We hope to continue spreading the word through our communities. Currently, we have deposit boxes placed in the Sunnyvale Sports Basement and the Cupertino Valley Church. We also are going to place flyers up throughout the community to hopefully spread the word.