Local Man Collects Donated Lacrosse Equipment For Local Clubs and Abroad
/After gathering over 1,200 pounds of community-donated lacrosse gear, John Davis Jr. is giving the equipment to local clubs and underprivileged Ugandan children this fall.
Anything deemed unusable has been discarded from being donated. Photo Courtesy of John Davis Jr.
Davis Jr. has collected gear since the start of the pandemic in the spring of last year through a Facebook campaign. Sticks, helmets, gloves, shoes and more are many of the things given to the cause.
Peterborough, the rest of Ontario and Quebec have donated their gear to Davis Jr. in honour of the cause. The Peterborough Minor Lacrosse Association and Peterborough Lakers have given two sets of home and away jerseys as part of the collection.
The equipment will go to the Uganda Lacrosse Foundation to provide underprivileged Ugandan youth to have access to play lacrosse. Any leftover gear that will not be sent overseas will be donated to local clubs and organizations according to Davis Jr.
“I intend on reaching out to different communities who need equipment for their house leagues,” he said. “I probably have 1,200 to 1,300 pounds of gear.”
Majority of the gear intended for Uganda will be field lacrosse equipment as opposed to box lacrosse. Photo Courtesy of John Davis Jr.
The Davis family have been born with lacrosse in their blood. Davis Jr. is the son of Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame inductee Johnny “Shooter” Davis —who has the Major Series Lacrosse playoff MVP trophy named after him — who won the Mann Cup in his rookie year in 1966.
John Davis Jr. (pictured) is a contributing writer for the New Jersey-based lacrosse website, crossecheck.com. Photo Courtesy of John Davis Jr.
Though Davis Jr. opted not to play professional lacrosse, his desire and passion for the game remained. He got the idea of helping Uganda lacrosse through contacts he made working as a writer for crossecheck.com.
After meeting with Ugandan players and Jaffari Makanda Ibrahim, president of the Ugandan Lacrosse Network and hearing their stories, inspired Davis Jr. to help a campaign with the University of Michigan.
Johnny “Shooter” Davis (pictured) has won two consecutive playoff MVP awards in 1966-67. Photo Courtesy of John Davis Jr.
