As we close out the 2021-2022 school year, let’s take a look back at a great year of safe, healthy, and inclusive play for Hoosier kids across all of Playworks Indiana’s services:
Fall
In the fall, we kicked off the school year by welcoming our new AmeriCorps members to serve as Coaches and TeamUp Site Coordinators, beginning with their pre-service training! We had such a fun day getting to know our new team members and helping them prepare for their first days at school facilitating safe, healthy, and inclusive play for kids.
In September, we observed the 9/11 AmeriCorps Service Day with our Coaches and created a new outdoor play area at our very own office for the school located right below us! Also in September, we brought back one of our favorite in person events, the Annual Corporate Kickball Tournament. After not hosting a tournament since 2019, it was so much fun to be out on the kickball diamonds with local companies and their employees reconnecting through play. Congratulations to Salesforce for bringing home the championship trophy! Check out the full recap of the day here. In October, Playworks Indiana and Indiana Sports Corp hosted the first All IN Sports League Showcase for our soccer league at Carol Stadium. It was the first of four showcases and got us really excited for flag football, girls basketball, and kickball. Finally, we wrapped up the fall with an Indiana staff retreat that brought us all together in person for some team bonding and community building after a very fraught period of remote/virtual work due to COVID.
Winter
The winter months were cold and long but that doesn’t mean we didn’t play our hardest thanks to a new Indiana Indoor Recess Game Guide! We kicked off the winter with our flag football showcase for All IN Sports Leagues at Creston Middle School in Warren Township. These kids had been practicing and learning the game over their 6 week season and were ready to show off their skills in front of their families! Before our schools and team went on holiday break in December, our staff got together for an end of year holiday party at Imbibe, complete with our Frosty Friend gift exchange! Definitely one of the highlights this year were all the opportunities we had to be together as a team After the new year and the return from break, our coaches and staff spent an afternoon together for an MLK service day packing and delivering lunches to unhoused communities across Indianapolis. The Playworks Indiana team also showed up for our school partners and larger community in speaking out against proposed legislation HB1134 and HB1041. We wrapped up the winter months with AmeriCorps Appreciation Week; a whole week dedicated to recognizing the hard work and commitment to service of our AmeriCorps members.
Spring
Springtime here in the Hoosier state can still be pretty gloomy and definitely rainy but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! 
Our Spring semester started off with our All IN Sports League girls basketball showcase at Arsenal Tech High School. These girls had a great time showing off their abilities to work as a team and we all had a great time watching and cheering them on! Before the school year ended, we were able to host a teacher appreciation kickball tournament during teacher appreciation week to celebrate our school partners and all their hard work throughout the year. Huge thank you to Sun King Brewing and Portillos for being our food and beverage sponsors for the event! Shoutout to Matchbook, Pleasant Run, Sunny Heights, Eastbrook, Brookview, and George Washington Carver for showing out! Our final All IN Sports League Showcase was a huge hit with Indiana Sports Corp securing Victory Field for our kickball league. Our schools, students, and families all had a blast closing out the school year with a night out on the diamond!
Summer
Our 2021-2022 school year officially ended with AmeriCorps Graduation! Here our AmeriCorps members becoming alumni.
While this school year was busy and challenging as we continue to feel the full impact of the pandemic on student development, it was also full of fun, full of play and exciting with the return of in person events. Thank you to all our school partners and supporters for making this another great school year!
