Visa USA Supports Play Every Day
As a worldwide Olympic partner since 1986, Visa is committed to empowering current and future Olympic team hopefuls to reach for and achieve their dreams. That’s why the company is joining the Partnership for Play Every Day to help raise awareness and support for increasing and improving the spaces where America’s youth can play.

As a proud a sponsor of the United States Olympic Team, the Play Every Day collaboration is a logical extension of Visa’s Olympic sponsorship that has long included support for national governing bodies and athletes. Now Visa is extending its commitment to local communities and organizations that are working to increase opportunities for physical activity for kids of all backgrounds and abilities.


Why the Partnership for Play Every Day is Important?
In addition to the negative health affects of inactivity, including risk for chronic diseases such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and depression, many kids are missing out on opportunities to discover new skills, develop self-confidence, and find new passions. Ensuring that all kids receive at least 60 minutes of play each day not only increases their chances for better health, but may also give them a chance at a more fulfilling life.


How will we help?
With the help of its Olympic athletes, Visa will provide “jump-start” grants to local communities to create more opportunities for children to exercise and participate in Olympic sports like swimming, volleyball and track and field. With the hope of sparking Olympic dreams for children everywhere, Visa is also encouraging other businesses and individuals to improve local parks, facilities, and playgrounds in their own communities.

On August 6th, legendary Olympic gold medalist Summer Sanders and World Champion swimmer Katie Hoff, kicked off Visa’s relationship with the Partnership for Play Every Day by presenting the National Capital YMCA in Washington DC with a $20,000 “jump-start” grant that will help enhance their swimming facilities, while providing fun and safe places to play and giving children more opportunities to get involved in Olympic sports in their community.

“For America’s kids, the time to play is today,” said Summer Sanders, who as a swimmer earned two gold, a silver, and a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympic Games. “We need everyone’s help in providing all kids with access to safe and well-equipped spaces and places where they can exercise have fun and maybe even pursue their own Olympic dreams.”

On Sept. 12th, Olympic beach volleyball stars Kerri Walsh and Mike Lambert lent their voices to the issue. As part of the effort, Visa and these stars presented San Francisco Recreation and Parks with a jump-start grant to dramatically enhance their youth volleyball programs, while providing children with fun and safe places to play as well as opportunities to get involved in Olympic sports in their community. The grant is expected to triple the number of locations and participants in this program by enhancing facilities, purchasing equipment and providing scholarships to area children.


What can you do?
Businesses/corporations
    Donate:
    • Add to Visa’s "jump start" grant and support the National Capital YMCA in Washington DC. Click here.
    • Add to Visa's "jump start" grant and support the San Francisco Recreation and Park Dept. Click here.
    • Support organizations in your own community that support play and play spaces. Click here for a list of Partnership members that can help you support safe spaces and opportunities for play by:
      • Helping to build playgrounds, trails, bike and walking paths, and fields and venues for sports, play and activity
      • Helping sponsor or scholarship children who otherwise do not have access to recreational opportunities, including children and adolescent intramural teams, clubs and sports leagues)
      • Advancing opportunities for access to physical education and physical activity in school and after school settings

    • Be a model for play in and through your business by:
      • Hosting family-day events with a focus on physical activity
      • Providing expertise in consumer research and market strategies for ongoing initiatives and interventions to enhance physical activities for kids
      • Developing products (leisure, entertainment and recreation industries) and opportunities that regularly promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviors among children
      • Lending your staff time to volunteer to walk with kids to school as part of a Safe Routes to School Program
 Everyone
    Advocate and become a voice for quality play by:
      • Urging your Member of Congress to support the Play Every Day Act (S. 651, H.R. 2045).
      • Encouraging new capital improvement projects with designs for promoting physical activity (e.g., bike paths, sidewalks, mixed land use, connections to community destinations, pedestrian promenades).
      • Encouraging local school districts to implement daily PE classes taught by qualified instructors.
      • Urging local leaders to increase venues such as recreational facilities, community-based organizations, parks, and playgrounds that are accessible to all children and allow for safe play.
 For more on what you can do, please see the recommendations (pages 45-51) in the Stanford University Report, “Building Generation Play: Addressing the Crisis of Inactivity Among America’s Children”.