Leadership Dayton’s ‘Pong for a Purpose’ project benefits addiction recovery

Each Leadership Dayton class leaves its lasting mark on the community through a class project. Class members are given little guidance when choosing a project, allowing the class to come to a consensus as a group. Over the years, these projects have ranged from book drives to community services days and social media campaigns. Below is an introduction to the project completed by this year’s graduating class.

By: Jodi Long, ADAMHS, Leadership Dayton Class of 2018 Representative

For its class project, Leadership Dayton Class of 2018 coordinated a community wide ping pong tournament known as “Pong for a Purpose”.

When class member Michael Allen of Northwestern Mutual suggested the concept of a ping pong tournament fundraiser, no one realized how successful it could be. Hosting the tournament created an opportunity for every member to showcase their strengths and talents from planning to marketing to donor sponsorships to large event execution.

The tournament had competitive and non-competitive brackets.

“Pong for a Purpose was a huge success,” Allen said. “We had 120 people playing ping pong to raise $18,800 for addiction recovery groups in the area.”

The proceeds from the class project will benefit 5 local addiction recovery clubs known as the Recovery Alliance of Montgomery County Ohio (RAMCO). The funds will be managed by the Greater Dayton Brain Health Foundation on behalf of RAMCO. The five recovery clubs include Alco Aides, Westside Club, Dayton Fellowship, Families of Addicts, and the Recovery Café. RAMCO supports individuals and their families affected by opioid and other substance addictions. Addiction recovery services was important to the class as several class members have been personally impacted by the opioid crisis.

“The class believes by supporting people in recovery, we are also supporting local employers’ human capital needs. Treatment works, people recover, and people in recovery become great employees.  We believe by supporting local recovery efforts, long term, we are supporting workforce development in the Dayton/Montgomery County region,” said Jodi Long, Leadership Dayton Class of 2018 representative.

If you would like to learn more about RAMCO, please visit mcadamhs.org and click on “support groups” from the home page.

To learn more about the Greater Dayton Brain Health Foundation, visit DaytonBrainHealth.org.