LaRosa Club receives $250K grant from Dick’s Foundation

It’s a way for the company to help the young people of McKeesport after its falling out with the school district.

Tuesday was a time for celebration for the McKeesport LaRosa Club, which received a major grant from the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation.

Rick Jordan, head of the Dick’s Foundation, presented LaRosa Club CEO Jim Barry Jr. with a $250,000 check. The grant through Dick’s Sports Matter Grant program was significant after Dick’s recently ended a partnership with the McKeesport Area School District.

During the grant presentation, Barry and local elected officials stood in front of several dozen kids who participate in the LaRosa Club.

“This is a truly humbling day for me personally and for the kids that we serve and our board members here,” Barry said. “To think an entity such as the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation and all the great work they’ve already done in this city, wants to continue making that investment with us. It’s certainly humbling. I was taken aback.”

Barry said they will use the funds to help with participation fees for kids, to boost their food program and to aid their educational support programs.

Barry, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, state Sen. Nick Pisciottano, state Rep. Dan Goughnour and McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko started discussions with the Dick’s Foundation after the partnership with the McKeesport Area School District ended.

“We spoke with the Dick’s team regarding the best ways for us to help our local students and families here in McKeesport,” Goughnor said. “We know that the Dick’s team deeply cares about the families in this community and about the kids in this community, and we are so very excited about seeing that continue with the grant that the LaRosa Youth Club will be able to continue the important work that they do to help support local families with programs that are meaningful, supportive and help enhance the development of young people in this area.”

Barry said that he’s held a close relationship with the Dick’s Foundation ever since it came into McKeesport to help with the school district. Barry added that last year, they received $10,000 from Dick’s through the same grant program.

Pisciottano said the grant for LaRosa is a perfect way for Dick’s to still help families in the McKeesport Area School District. Once the elected officials presented the idea of LaRosa to Dick’s, Pisciottano said they were delighted to help out.

“So when the partnership with the school district dissolved, it was really important to myself and some of the other elected officials to keep those resources and investments in McKeesport,” he said. “The best way to do that was to partner with the LaRosa because almost all the families here were benefiting at McKeesport.

“We looked at it and said, ‘How can we continue to ensure that the families and the kids could receive those support services they were receiving previously?’ And partnering with LaRosa was the best way to do it.”

Cherepko commended Dick’s for the work the company has already done with the school district and added that Dick’s and the LaRosa Club are a perfect partnership.

“What they’ve done in the school district over the last several years, I can’t speak more highly,” Cherepko said. “I’ve got to see this entity, the LaRosa club, long before it was LaRosa, almost 80 years they’ve been here.

“When I was here, at a young age, I was able to see it as a member of this club. I was able to see it as a former educator in the school district. I’ve been able to see it as a city councilman, and I’ve been able to see it as a mayor for 14 years, of the impact that these individuals who run this club, whether board members, whether Jim Barry and his staff, they truly care.”

Jordan said that the Dick’s Foundation grant aims to help the LaRosa programs and not only sports, but also their other services.

“We believe it’s so important to give back to the communities that we have the pleasure of serving,” Jordan said. “So our donation today will help ensure that this club that we’ve heard so much about, these kiddos, they have access to, yes, sports, in terms of athletic programs, but also amazing benefits like enrichment and mentorship and food, and just have a good time.”