Quincy, Mass – J. Calnan & Associates, Inc. and Team IMPACT were recently recognized by the Boston Business Journal as Partners of the Year for their continued work to improve the quality of life for children facing life threatening illnesses by matching them with college athletic teams.
The announcement was made recently at the eighth annual Corporate Philanthropy Summit held at the Westin Boston Waterfront which wasattended by nearly 1000 leaders representing a wide range of local and national companies with a presence in Massachusetts as well as many non-profit organizations.
The concept of creating partnerships between sick children and college athletic teams has been around for decades, dating back to the 1960s when football players from Middlebury College started “Picking Up Butch.” Since then, there have been countless teams that have “picked up” a kid just like Butch, including UConn Men’s Basketball inspiration Joe McGinn; USC Men’s Football’s support of Jake Olson; and Northwestern University Women’s Lacrosse “adoption” of Jaclyn Murphy, to just name a few.
It’s a win all the way around: the child gains lasting friendship, support and a much-needed diversion from their medical realities and the 18-22 year-old student athlete draws inspiration and a whole new perspective on life. As a father, former athlete and businessman, Jay Calnan, CEO of J. Calnan & Associates knew there was something to this idea and that this program needed to be funded, formalized and built upon, through the help of others.
By leveraging the resources of J. Calnan and Associates and the working together with an esteemed Board of Directors, they hit the ground running and 2 years ago, Team IMPACT – which stands for Inspire, Motivate, Play Against Challenges Together – was born. In just 2 short years, Team IMPACT has quickly grown and now has to close to 10,000 program participants across half the country!