In 2022, Martha Barbera received a USA Lacrosse physical education grant to help introduce lacrosse to her students at Curtis Corner Middle School in Wakefield, Rhode Island. The sticks and balls were a perfect fit for the ‘Outdoor Games’ curriculum that Barbera had designed to keep her students physically active by experiencing new activities.
“Our school struggles with funding, so the equipment was so nice to receive and I was able to teach numerous classes a new sport,” Barbera said. “We were so grateful for your generous donation. The students were so excited to see the new equipment.”
Due to her limited personal background with lacrosse, Barbera utilized a student-leader system to help introduce the skills of the game, leveraging students with prior lacrosse knowledge to guide those who were first-timers.
“It was neat to have the students teaching each other and interacting,” she said. “Those with some lacrosse experience were able to help the ones that were newer to the sport.”
Unfortunately, due to multiple factors, the school district decided to close down Curtis Corner at the end of the 2022-23 school year. After 14 years at the middle school, Barbera was reassigned to the elementary level this year and is rotating between three local schools within the same district. The equipment is moving with her.
Barbera is planning on now using the equipment from the USA Lacrosse grant to introduce the sport to her younger students. Have sticks, will travel.
“The school principals are pretty open to what we want to offer the kids in physical education, so I have fingers crossed that we’ll be able to keep doing lacrosse,” Barbera said. “Some of the kids in middle school last year really took to it. They were really interested in trying it out. We hope that we’ll find the same enthusiasm with the elementary students.”
Barbera is looking at the silver lining in her transition from middle school to elementary.
“In some ways, this might be better because we can now get our students engaged with lacrosse at an even younger age,” she said. “They are all interested in trying it out. That’s a good thing.”
USA Lacrosse grants help support community partners that create participation opportunities and breakdown the barriers to participation. Grant opportunities are offered in three main categories: Equipment Grants, Player Clinic Grants, and Financial Support. LEARN MORE HERE
