SALT LAKE CITY - Real Salt Lake and the Salt Lake City School District today unveiled several details of a long-term partnership. The first event will include the school district using RSL tickets as a first day of school attendance incentive for the more than 23,000 students in the 36 Elementary, Middle and High Schools in the district.
In an announcement made today at Bennion Elementary School in northeast Salt Lake City, District Superintendent Dr. McKell Withers and Real Salt Lake General Manager Steve Pastorino outlined the joint "Welcome Back to School!" program, in which select sponsors will provide a ticket to the team's Saturday, Sept. 3 game at Rice-Eccles Stadium against the New England Revolution at no cost to students who attend the first day of class for the 2005-06 school year.
"We appreciate the energy and commitment of Real Salt Lake in building community partnerships and working with our Board of Education to benefit children," said Dr. Withers. "Professional soccer players work hard and study hard to become the best they can be. With this incentive, our students who are on time and ready to learn on the first day of school can start down the same path. For both of us, our students are our future."
Several Utah-area companies, including SuperCuts, Stevens-Henager College and Dick's Sporting Goods, have stepped forward in support of the ticket/attendance initiative, subsidizing the cost of the free tickets for qualifying students. Real Salt Lake also will make tickets available to district employees as a reward for their hard work and dedication. In addition, tickets are available at a discounted group rate to the families of each student.
"Integral to our mission as a team and as an organization is to be a community citizen which leads by example, a belief we share with the sponsors that make this program possible," said Pastorino. "Our partnership with the District, where our players and staff demonstrate the values of education, teamwork, literacy and public service, gives us an opportunity to work on a regular basis with our community's future."
The "Back to School" ticket/attendance program is the first step of many between the two entities, as RSL players will appear on all 36 school campuses during the first day of the academic year in support of the program. The Sierra Mist "Dribble, Pass and Score" competition - Major League Soccer's free youth skills contest - will be installed in the physical education curricula of each school, while RSL players will make regular visits to various age groups and discuss a variety of topics throughout the fall on an education/teamwork tour.
