AIM, standing for Athletic Impact Mission, is a club started this year by juniors Deep Nandi, Leo Deidrich, and Quinn Synnott. 

According to Nandi, the mission of AIM is “To give underprivileged kids sports equipment that they don’t have.” So far, two meetings have been held for Athletic Impact Mission, and both have brought in a significant amount of members from a variety of grade levels. Offering leadership positions and having an official Instagram, AIM has shown that it is organized and ready to get right to work. In the most recent meeting, the club prepared their donations boxes for the year. These will be placed in the front office, and used sports equipment can be dropped off in them.

Deep explained what motivated him and his friends to start AIM in the interview as well: “We wanted to make a charity club that we were passionate about. We all play sports and we didn’t really see a club that donated sports equipment.” Deep also expressed, “It’s a problem in today’s world where kids don’t have the privilege that me and you have with getting sports equipment.”

Growth is something that is very important to the success of AIM. Deep said, “I’ll mainly measure the success through if we have a constant membership in the club and if we are just gaining more support.” AIM also plans to keep track of the money they fundraise and the amount of donations they collect, hoping to see an increase in both of those numbers.

AIM has ambitious goals for the future. Deep said, “I see it partnering with the school to make Fun Runs and things like those,” and he hopes to “maybe even get outside of Reading and outside of Massachusetts,” in terms of their events and their impact. AIM also plans to hold different charity matches for different sports in order to “generate money to get sports equipment for the children in need.”

Deep talked about how joining AIM is a huge benefit for any student: “It’s not really a huge commitment and everyone plays sports and everyone has sports equipment lying around and to give it to others and let other kids have that privilege is a good feeling to have.” However, you do not have to donate to become a member, and it is encouraged to help out at club events and meetings regardless if you are a donor.

AIM meets Thursday mornings at 8 am in room 313.

Listen to our podcast interview with AIM’s Deep Nandi by clicking on the story link below.