C.A.T.C.H. 22 - STORY:

C.A.T.C.H. was first established on 2/19/97 and was responsible for bringing a football program to the Chitteden East School District .We are proud to announce that we now have a program to support in Lamoille County. We just finished our first practice season and ended with a pizza party at The House of Pizza in Morrisville.

My son Jake, was born on 11/7 and weighing only 7 lb. 11oz. And with no football in the area until myself a father wanted his son to play high school football like his father did years ago. The only reason there is football program today in the Jericho area is because of C.A.T.C.H. 22 Youth Football league inc. Anyone can start or undermine a football program but only we can start a CATCH 22 Football program!

In the Spring 1999, Tim Called to thank a parent that had joined a membership fund drive and found out that someone else had been recruiting players from the Catch 22 team of the past season. This was against the by-laws of the Northern Vermont Youth Football League. I brought this to the attention of the NVYFL and they did nothing. We were told to work it out between ourselves. How do you work with unscrupulous people that don't abide by the rules.

Shortly after this, one of them was named as an officer of the NVYFL! After a couple of years, I received some threatening e-mails that they would take the youth football equipment of Catch 22 Youth Football. (Still have the copies if anyone is interested.) It sheds a new light on their intensity with integrity. Fall of 99 I introduced myself and Catch 22 to the curriculum committee as a way of starting a high school team and would fund it independently with a nonprofit organization.

While this other group of people were busy with the new Chittenden East Youth Football Association from the fall of 1999, Catch 22 was invited to the Vermont Interscholastic Football League meetings starting in the spring of 2000. From attending the meeting, Catch 22 was allowed to scrimmage any team in that league. A first-ever scrimmage contest was held on Sept. 22nd of 2000 against Colchester High School. Offered twice to fund a high school football program via nonprofit.

After the second proposal, the curriculum board and school board members acknowledged two separate groups vying to financially support a football team yet my proposal was apparently not even considered. In the fall of 2001, a team was assembled from returning players and a few new faces, with double the number of scrimmage contests along with the new MMU football program starting up. The fall of 2002 we saw a decline in the numbers to the new MMU football program and scrimmaged only a few teams. In the subsequent years we have been without a team to support, yet the nonprofit efforts have continued and will continue with or without a team. Catch 22 has decided to give a percentage of its fund raising activities to the 22 Shriners Hospitals as of 8/8/04. We will offer to help anyone interested in starting with youth football as long as its with the nonprofit established for its direction and support.

MMU football program and scrimmaged only a few teams. In the subsequent years we have been without a team to support, yet the nonprofit efforts have continued and will continue with or without a team. Catch 22 has decided to give a percentage of its fund raising activities to the 22 Shriners Hospitals as of 8/8/04. We will offer to help anyone interested in starting with youth football as long as its with the nonprofit established for its direction and support.

C.A.T.C.H.22 Youth Football is proud to announce that we now have a program to support in Lamoille County. We just finished our first practice season and ended with a pizza party at The House of Pizza in Morrisville.

In 1999, Shadows in the Dark, one of the many sponsors to C.A.T.C.H. XXII, has made numerous donations to help Support CATCH XXII and continued support to help keep children off the streets and to be active in Youth Sports programs in the area.

Shadows in the Dark is the # 1 source for Braille Greeting Cards offering now in 8 languages. We proudly make donations based on a percentage of our yearly sales. Currently our donations are paying for the Hosting of C.A.T.C.H. XXII website.

Shadows in the Dark is currently located in Shreveport, Louisiana with the zip code of 71107.

For more information about Shadows in the Dark, visit their website at: www.shadowsinthedark.com or email them at: info@shadowsinthedark.com

TIM MCKENNA

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