All About Opportunity4Kids

All About Opportunity4Kids

Here at Van Norman Law, we have always focused on representing our clients in court for a number of reasons. However, we are equally as involved and focused on helping out our community. If you don’t already know, Opportunity4Kids supports children in youth sports, activities, and overall development through coaching and sponsorship year round.

Opportunity4Kids has seen increasing success over the last few years, and has even supported nearly 500 children in 2016 alone! While Opportunity4Kids strives to support each child to the best of their ability, we also emphasizes the continued and long-term success and support of each child, rather than letting a sponsorship serve as a one-time only promise. The goals for the program reflect that of personal growth and social development in order to provide children with opportunities they couldn’t afford otherwise.

History of Opportunity4Kids

The history behind the program is just as amazing as the cause. As a parent, Kevin Van Norman was always involved with his children’s lives and his local community, volunteering his free time to coach sports. As joyous as this was for him, there was something that upset him: seeing children unable to participate due to their financial circumstances. It was in those moments that Kevin realized how he could help those children, by bridging the gap and providing financial resources to those children who had longed to participate in youth sports and activities. Kevin did this on his own for quite some time, and on this project full-scale when his brother, Jeff Van Norman, joined as his business partner. Soon after, both of them had created the Opportunity4Kids to give greater support and publicity to Opportunity4Kids.

While both Jeff and Kevin feel like each and every child they sponsor teaches them something new, some of the children have stood out as perfect examples of what Opportunity4Kids means. For instance, when Samantha was 4 years old, Child Protective Services removed her from her home because she was neglected and abused by her parents. Her new foster parents fell in love with this special little girl, and formally adopted Samantha and her twin brothers in 2009.

Samantha’s new parents also adopted three other children, bringing their total to six adopted foster children. Samantha’s greatest joy was playing soccer. Recognizing her talent, she was invited to an exclusive soccer camp in Arizona to hone her skills and enjoy the summer with her friends. Because their family had grown so large, her parents could not afford to send her to soccer camp with the rest of her teammates. This is when they reached out to Opportunity4Kids for help. Fortunately, we were able to give Samantha the gift of soccer camp, an opportunity she would not have otherwise had!

We would like the program to begin partnering with and financially supporting local schools that have lost their extracurricular programs due to funding cuts in order to expand opportunities for children throughout the state. While this is going to be a large task, Opportunity4Kids has survived with help from board members and donors who believe that every child should have the opportunity to get involved in anything that peaks their interests.