Date

Contact NameFoundation NameAddressCity, State, Zip

RE: Technology to Help Boys & Girls Club Battle the Physical, Educational, and Social Challenges Children Face Today

Dear Contact Name,

Every day, the YOUR Boys & Girls Club strives in a meaningful manner to change young lives by helping members achieve positive outcomes relating to a wide range of issues.

Sadly, a few of the greatest issues facing youth at the YOUR Boys & Girls Club are physical inactivity, academic engagement, and social interactions. ENTER ANY RELAVENT LOCAL DATA HERE.

The YOUR Boys & Girls Club is writing to you today to ask for a generous donation that will allow us to install groundbreaking technology from SMARTfit Inc., into our facility that can go a long way in helping YOUR Boys & Girls Club win the battle against these serious issues in our market.

We believe that by introducing SMARTfit technology, our club can help youths establish positive physical fitness habits, increase academic success, and increase a positive outlook on a diverse community that can last a lifetime. It’s rare that we find a progressive system or practice that can engage such a broad range of our members.

In our state, physical inactivity, academic decline, and social conflict among youths are something of an epidemic. Clearly, these are major issues in our community, and SMARTfit can assist in tackling these issues by providing an enjoyable exercise option that stimulates the brain and increases social engagement.

SMARTfit’s “Brain to Body Gaming Systems” attract and captivate youths like a modern video game, but instead provide a unique multisensory workout. Simply put, SMARTfit systems can go a long way in helping our members achieve a healthy lifestyle while elevating the opportunity for academic success and bolstering character and citizenship.

The YOUR Boys & Girls Club has been serving COMMUNITY NAME community since YEAR with a wide range of wellness programs that are designed to build healthy lifestyles in youth and families. As we begin to embrace new technology that can help us facilitate more advanced programming, we ask for your support in introducing SMARTfit into the YOUR Boys & Girls Club.

Sincerely,

Name Title

FUNDING PROPOSAL

Using New Technology to Address Local Issues

SUBMITTED TO: YOUR Boys & Girls Club

I. PROJECT SUMMARY

The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of America is to enable all young people to reach their full potential, and we’re constantly assessing the best ways we can introduce new practices and technology to help battle a wide range issues that are facing our local youths.

There are several pressing issues facing the youth of our communities. To address the educational gaps within our communities, tackling the growing atmosphere of bullying and social conflict, and the increasing amount of physical inactivity in children, our Your Boys and Girls Club is always striving to innovative ways to meet these issues head on. We believe we have found a technology, by SMARTfit, Inc. that inspires kids to establish positive physical fitness practices, increase social engagement through teamwork, and increase their academic success unlike anything we’ve seen in recent years. To introduce this technology, the Boys & Girls Club needs the support of your organization.

The YOUR Boys & Girls Club has already received a grant from SMARTfit to install their progressive technology. We are now working with organizations like yours to raise the remaining balance of funds necessary to install SMARTfit at our facility.

In our interactions with SMARTfit, we’ve seen how their “Cognitive Training Games” attract and motivate youths like a standard video game, but instead provide a brain-body exercise that allows kids to establish healthy physical fitness habits, engage in academic learning, and develop peer to peer interactions.

One of the greatest issues we face with youths is getting them to take a leap of faith, and participate in exercise. SMARTfit’s gaming systems build a bridge to physical fitness for kids, that may not have been previously interested in fitness based games. They do this by engaging them in games similar to the video games they love and play so frequently.

(YOUR Boys & Girls Club FILL IN FINANCIAL ELEMENTS)

Boys and Girls Clubs Love SMARTfit systems!

II. BUILDING A BRIDGE TO POSITIVE PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND SOCIAL HABITS

Recent data from Kaiser Permanente suggests that children and young adults are spending as much as 8.5 hours per day interacting with media, watching television, using computers and smart phones, and playing video games. Projections indicate that “screen time” is likely to continue to increase, rather than decrease.

This is, quite obviously, a leading factor for childhood obesity, social isolation, and educational disengagement. While researchers, foundations, and companies around the world spend hours working to develop complex solutions, SMARTfit has, incredibly, utilized the problem itself to develop a simple solution.

“If kids want to play computer/video games, let them play computer/video games,” SMARTfit CEO Cathi Lamberti told us, “But let them interact with computer/video games in a multisensory environment that stimulates brain, body, and all five senses.”

When the SMARTfit team has conducted live demos at Boys & Girls Club locations across the country, what amazed them most was how young members were remarkably interested and motivated to repeatedly participate in SMARTfit games. Every day, the YOUR Boys & Girls Club offers a wide range of sports games and physical fitness opportunities. But nothing like this.

While our regular practices can be highly effective and entertaining to our members, SMARTfit can help those that don’t participate in daily physical activity to adopt daily play and exercise habits. SMARTfit, specifically, speaks to those that may be hesitant or afraid to take participate in challenging team sports like football, basketball, and more.

In our eyes, SMARTfit “Levels the Playing Field” by introducing programming that gives youths of all skill levels the ability to leave sessions feeling positive, simply by improving on their own scores throughout the session.

That’s exactly what we want. Inclusive programming that engages and attracts youths of all abilities to adopt daily exercise habits, increase social development, and stimulate academic learning. Once we’re able to install SMARTfit systems and integrate them into our regular programming, we believe we can quickly assist youths in adopting positive physical, mental, and social habits by “building a bridge” with the types of systems and games that they are already familiar with.

III. OUTLINE OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL BENEFITS THAT CAN HELP ADDRESS CHILDHOOD INACTIVITY, EDUCATIONAL DEVELOMENT, AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

Boys & Girls Clubs have been recognized by national, regional, and local public health leaders as an important organization in the fight for children’s physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Physical health is connected to mental and emotional health. The mind and the body are linked. When you improve your physical health, you'll automatically experience greater mental and emotional well-being. By combining our mindful approach to these issues with SMARTfit technology, we believe the YOUR Boys & Girls Club can have a greater impact on the local community.

In addition to a long list of mental benefits that facilitate cognitive development in youth, SMARTfit provides a litany of physical benefits that combat childhood obesity through both its technology and progressive programming.

Instead of simulating play, SMARTfit systems engage players in a real multisensory kinesthetic experience involving real play and sporting equipment. SMARTfit technology features targets with multiple colors, shapes, letters, numbers, equations, and sounds. This creates new cognitive, visual, and auditory challenges for participants while also tracking accuracy, speed and motion.

SMARTfit’s technology combines the latest in brain research and exercise science with games and programming that require complex cognitive function to make decisions and execute skills. So not only would we be engaging our members in physical activity, but in games that provide a host of cognitive benefits that can enhance their development as students, as well.

The mix of cognitive training with the widely understood positive effect that physical activity has on the brain, creates new ways to engage the brain through action-based learning concepts. Research at facilities using interactive programs in Boston, MA, Kansas City, MO and Naperville, IL have

Physical Benefits Related to Regular Engagement with SMARTfit SystemsFitness Benefits - Cardiovascular, Strength, Aerobic, Anaerobic, Functional, Core

Strength, Balance, Flexibility, Range of Motion Sports Benefits - Throwing, Catching, Kicking, Tracking, Conditioning, Accuracy,

Placement, Footwork, Ball Speed and Control, Quickness, Speed, Agility, Visual Awareness

Neural and Cognitive Benefits Related to Regular Engagement with SMARTfit Systems

Proprioception, vestibular control, hand-foot-eye coordination, neuroplasticity (“Miracle Grow for the brain”), cognitive agility, motor coordination and reaction skills,

neural system repair, attention and focus, memory, problem solving, speed, accuracy and reaction timing, decision making under pressure and “in-the-now” training (zone

training).

demonstrated significant improvement in exercise adherence, several physiological categories, behavior, school attendance levels and academic achievement.

The chart below demonstrates results of a recent study conducted at Naperville Central High School in Naperville, IL. A group of students at Naperville Central High School voluntarily took part in "Zero Hour" daily exercise over two semesters, and engaged each day with SMARTfit technology. This study was done over a year to assess improvement in reading levels between those that attended "Zero Hour," and those that didn’t.

The list of benefits really speaks for itself in terms of the remarkable range of ways in which SMARTfit can affect our young members. Helping bridge the gap to physical fitness is the initial key. Once our members are engaged with SMARTfit systems, we can really begin to develop them physically and mentally through SMARTfit’s advanced programming.

In addition, SMARTfit’s systems increase the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) by increasing physical, cognitive, and social engagement. In his book “Brain Rules” Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist at Washington State University states, "At the molecular level, early studies indicate that exercise also stimulates one of the brain's most powerful growth factors, BDNF, which aids in the development of healthy tissue. BDNF exerts a fertilizer-like growth effect on certain neurons in the brain. The protein keeps existing neurons young and healthy, rendering them much more willing to connect with one another. It also encourages neurogenesis, the formation of new cells in the brain. The cells most sensitive to this are in the hippocampus, inside the very regions deeply involved in human cognition. Exercise increases the level of usable BDNF inside those cells. The more you exercise, the more fertilizer you create."

Harvard psychiatrist, John Ratey refers to BDNF as “Miracle-Gro for the brain”. He calls BDNF “a crucial biological link between thought, emotions, and movement.”

IV. USING SMARTfit AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL INTEGRATION

SMARTfit has developed games that they refer to as “Programming Designed to Change Lives,” since their inclusive programming model helps further to establish advanced social integration while facilitating team building and increasing group cooperation. It has been amazing to see instances of kids that normally rest on opposite sides of the social spectrum connecting and bonding during SMARTfit gaming sessions.

On the playground, self-esteem frequently hangs on a child’s ability to throw and catch a ball. Who might be picked to a team is a primitive measure of social acceptance among children. However, it is the belief of SMARTfit Inc. that children previously marginalized to the sidelines can be integrated back into playground activity because the system provides a protected, unintimidating environment in which to develop their skills. For this purpose, the SMARTfit systems provide an essential versatility.

SMARTfit programs develop social skills and interpersonal cooperation through social interaction in a spirit of fun. SMARTfit introduces opportunities for our young members to work together as a team, and create an environment where participants develop and enhance concepts such as inclusiveness, cooperation, and mutual support.

By building a support system for those that may not have had it in past play settings, SMARTfit provides opportunities for youths to engage in positive physical fitness habits as never before.

Therefore, the additional social integration benefit is yet another reason why we are requesting funding from your organization to install SMARTfit technology.

Finally, the SMARTfit systems assist the staff of our facilities to effectively control and engage a large number of children efficiently. This has incredible potential to help us be more effective, efficient with our time, and more engaged with the children.

V. TAR RIVER REGION, NORTH CAROLINA CASE STUDY

Recently, the SMARTfit team was deeply touched and inspired to receive the following story from Ron Green, The CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Tar River Region in North Carolina.

“Can you imagine being a middle school student, who should be in High School, who’s legally blind and wears two hearing aids? On top of all that you have been in the foster care system most of your life.”

Seattle is a member of Ron’s club and has visual and auditory impairments. She was recommended to join the Lucy Ann Boddie Brewer Unit by the Department of Social Services to help her with academics, self-esteem, and inclusion. When Seattle enrolled in the club she immediately exiled herself for the other members and when helped with homework she would manipulate others to do it for her. She was so withdrawn from others that she never competed in any activities in the gym during Triple Play Plus.

“During one of the TPP sessions I was monitoring participation of an activity using the SMARTfit Wall. The teens participating were having a blast. As soon as one game ended they were begging to play again. The game got so competitive that I took off my suit coat and joined one of the teams. After being gassed after one round of the relay race thought the alphabet (in which we won) I took a seat and noticed Seattle was not participating… After watching 3 games she still wouldn’t participate until an employee helped her…. After the clock stopped and the game ended Seattle was in 3rd place but you would have thought she finished first. The excitement on her face was a picture of achievement. The opportunity to be just like everyone else, to participate to develop relationships, and to be included. All her life, her disabilities caused her to exile herself and now as a result of SMARTfit technology she experiences inclusion.

When, it’s time to participate in TPP Seattle has the biggest grin on her face and she waits for the wall to light up… Staff have been using the games to help her with her cognitive-thinking to increase her academic success. When applying our youth development strategy we try to instill in every club member a sense of belonging, sense of competency, sense of power and influence, and a sense of usefulness. We now see a new Seattle at the club.”

Ron GreenChief Executive Officer Boys & Girls Club of the Tar River Region in North Carolina

EDEN, NORTH CAROLINA CASE STUDY

SMARTfit team installed the SMARTfit™ Trainer 4 system in the Boys and Girls Club of Eden (NC) thanks to a grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable trust, a trust that focuses on promoting quality of life and quality of health in its community.

“We installed the SMARTfit Trainer and the kids, staff, board and community love it. It’s our first step to enhancing triple play. . . This product addresses all aspects including the mind, body and soul with academic features as well as increased physical activity, cognitive enhancement and fun. . . The first day of the program had kids that never go to the gym involved and actively participating, including 2 teenage girls who make the A honor roll every time and don’t go to the gym.”

Amy Nalley, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club Eden

The integration of SMARTfit technology in Eden, NC and the Tar River Region of NC have demonstrated huge success stories for their respective clubs. The YOUR Boys & Girls Club wants to follow these positive case studies, and create an outstanding success story of our own, with SMARTfit technology.

I. BUDGET – Available Upon Specific Request