By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The Parkland Raiders, a youth football and cheer organization based in Tacoma, Washington, recently reported a break-in involving their equipment trailer. The incident has drawn attention on social media after the organization publicly shared their frustration and disappointment over the fact that their young athletes were the ones affected.
“We leave our trailer parked on school grounds, and after the weekend, when school was in session on Monday, they stumbled across the trailer lock being broken off, and all of the contents of the trailer were everywhere and throughout the parking lot,” said Mila Taviuni, president of the Parkland Raiders. “They stole five to six thousand dollars’ worth of equipment. They weren’t able to get everything, but they took quite a big chunk of our stuff.”
According to Taviuni, the thieves stole thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment, including helmets, shoulder pads and practice gear. The loss is a big setback to the organization, as they now have to replace all of the stolen equipment that has taken them some time to accumulate.
“I have been purchasing helmets and shoulder pads little by little, just trying to build up for next year to make sure that we have loaners for families who aren’t able to afford them,” Taviuni said. “Because every year we do have families that aren’t able to afford equipment, so I like to have loaners available for those in need. But they took all of those, so I kind of have to start from the bottom again to build up the inventory to be able to provide for those families in our program.”
Taviuni said that the thieves also tried to break into the school’s equipment trailer but were unsuccessful.
“They have their trailer next to ours, but it is heavily chained with multiple locks on it, so they weren’t able to get into it,” said Taviuni.
The loss of equipment has affected the program’s ability to run effective practices and support younger athletes’ development, as it prevents the creation of game-like scenarios for training.
“It has definitely affected practices just because all the stuff that was taken are the things that we use daily to help with the kids’ development,” said Taviuni. “Those tools are crucial to having the best game-time situations; the older ones are OK because they have been doing it for years. But the younger ones, those are the kids that are just starting out, so the pads are crucial because it helps get them used to contact and become acclimated to the physicality of the game.”
For an all-volunteer organization that operates without sponsors and depends on community support, the break-in has caused a hard hit financially for the organization. Despite the challenges, Taviuni expressed deep gratitude for the outpouring of support Parkland has received in the aftermath.
“There was a lot of outrage in the community, and so many of them have offered support financially. We have had a couple of organizations nearby that offered up some of their equipment — that would be Rise Academy and Gridiron Sports Performance. They are looking through their inventory and maybe at things that they don’t use as much are going to be donated to us,” said Taviuni. “A couple of our team managers also put together a GoFundMe of sorts through a program.”
Despite the recent events, Taviuni said that the kids remain the driving force behind the organization, providing the motivation to push forward through difficult times.
“The fire that they bring, the passion they bring and how they want to come to practice makes us want to coach. It would be easy to walk away and quit if the kids wanted to quit, but they didn’t have that passion; they wanted to continue on,” said Taviuni. “They show up every day ready to get to work, and it just lights the fire in the coaches. When I look around and see everything that we don’t have anymore, and they still want to be at practice and still play the game, it just motivates me and the families more to keep on going.”
