Football Spirit Bags!

This year, Ty was eligible to play for his middle school football team.  I was asked to be responsible for the team's, of 35 players and 4 coaches, "Spirit Bags".  I had no footsteps to follow in.  I have no idea if I am keeping up with the status of what was done last year OR if I am setting newer precedents. Haha.  But... I had my own visions of what "Spirit Bags" should contain.  I was ONLY asked to do bags for the AWAY games.  Fortunately, we only had (3) away games, so it was doable.  I wanted to keep the items in the bags MOSTLY healthy, but I recognize NOT ALL KIDS see the value or have tastes buds for healthy things, so I did include some processed and junky snacks too.  I also wanted to give the boys something to do on their bus ride away.

We had a very small budget to work with.  Several parents from the team donated a total of $150.00, but divided by 39 people that was literally ONLY $1.01 per player/coach, PER game.  Ummm.... I'm no genius, BUT that type of budget could NOT fill a bag.  So... I made about 50 phone calls to local vendors and at this time... I would LIKE to thank those companies for all of their generous contributions.  See below...

Game 1/ Bag 1

Thank you LifeWay Christian BookStore for your generous scripture cards, offering the boys encouragement.

Captain Party, a store I have shopped at since I have been 16, donated these football flingers...

Football poppers...

Mystery Flavor AirHeads...

GREEN blowpipes... and a few other candy items.  

The Vitamin Shoppe donated packets of fruits/veggies in powder form, for the boys to add to their water.  Funny story behind that is... they didn't read what it was and a few boys put it directly in their mouth thinking it was gatorade sugar packets. Needless to say.... they had to run to the bathroom when the bus arrived.  I thought that was both funny and well... STINKY!

Darren and I donated these LaraBars.  I bought them from Sam's Club.

Mission BBQ donated a card good for ONE SANDWICH.  This is incredible.  

Sports Haven donated water bottles, koozies, and ....

A coupon for $3.00 off anything in their NEW Salem Store.

Sports Haven also went above and beyond and treated the football coaches to these AWESOME Packers Glenvar drawstring bags. I thought it was cool that the bags didn't say Packers.  

Carmen, a parent of a middle school cheerleader, has her own side business called Four Seasons Gifts, and she was kind enough to donate paper FOOTBALLS.  I used them to help decorate the outside of the boys' bags.

I made the boys' names.  I feel like personalizing the bags made them EXTRA special. These bags also contained a Sunny Delight.

Game 2/Bag 2

Above: I designed and printed the cutest labels on my computer for the exterior of the bags.

Below: Stuffed footballs were donated by FUN TIMES Party Store.  They also donated...

Cry Baby candy...

Blow Pops....

Bouncing Balls...

Colorful AirHeads...

And Darren and I spotted these adorable balloons at their store and treated the boys EACH to one.

The parents' donations bought these Ritz Bits crackers filled with cheese.  Thanks Sam's Club.

And peanuts....

All Sports Cafe, in Salem, donated 42 BLONDE brownies.  These brownies are AMAZING and served with the most delicious butterscotch sauce and the best vanilla bean ice cream. They are made at a bakery in downtown Roanoke.  

I found some football paper at JoannFabrics and decided to turn their boring water bottles into FOOTBALL field like water bottles.  

I just LOVE the way their turned out.

These bags also contained canned drinks for the boys to choose from: Yoohoo, Lemonade, Fruit Punch, and Iced Tea.  I tried to stay away from soft drinks.

The Fresh Market donated a $25 gift card towards the purchase of anything I wanted.  I was able to buy several packers of assorted fruit crisps.   

Game 3/Bag 3

I passed off the items, I collected, to another mom to fill and deliver, so I am not sure what the FINAL bag looks like, but here's what was inside:

Darren and I bought these for the boys: tabletop, NFL footballs.  I found them on Amazon.

I put them in little baggies and inflated them, so they wouldn't get LOST in their Spirit Bag.

I thought this would be so fun to have on the bus.  They can spend some time trading for their favorite team.

Another local sports store called Tailgaters donated a FULL punch card, giving the boys $10.00 off of any purchase. 

Five Below donated 35 jars of FLARP in GREEN AND GOLD!

I'm sure whoever is driving the bus will need a back massage and a cold beer after hearing FARTING  noises x 35 players for a full hour there and a full hour back.

 

With the parents' money, I purchased both "mystery 2-flavored" Laffy Taffy...

And over-sized sour patch kids from Five Below.

Food Lion donated a $10 gift card, so I was able to buy several boxes of these Lance cracker packets.

Darren and I donated (2) Slim Jims EACH, per player.

ALL of the bags also contained DRINKS and string cheese.  There were other additional food items, but nothing worth really photographing, LOL! I was thankful I got to be a part of this responsibility.  I know the boys really appreciated it and it helped get them PUMPED up for their away games.