What We Do
Mission
The Hatch Community Youth Fund works to improve the quality of life for the resident youth of Brooksville, Castine, & Penobscot by underwriting participation in sport and recreational physical activity.
Vision
Every child pre-school through high school residing permanently in these historically linked rural coastal Maine communities can access, pursue, contribute to, and learn from participation in organized and mentored sports and recreational activities.
Impact
Active participation in organized and mentored sport and recreational activity, especially when discovered early, strengthens communities and bestows a lifetime of personal benefits including strength, teamwork, connection, gratitude, self-confidence, resilience, and health.
Inspiration
The Hatch Community Youth Fund is a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code named in honor of Francis W. Hatch & Harold B. Hatch. Though unrelated, both men were long-time, active members of our community and cared deeply about the flourishing of its many and diverse members, especially the children!
Poignancy
“The benefits for youth who engage in regular physical activity are clear: they have improved bone health, weight status, cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, cardiometabolic health, and cognitive function and a reduced risk of depression.”
Urgency
“We are embodied creatures; children should learn how to manage their bodies in the physical world before they start spending large amounts of time in the virtual world.”
—Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness