08/19/2026
Thank you for supporting student-athletes! Go Magics! 💜💜
BIG NEWS! 💜💛 We are fortunate at the Foundation to be on the front lines of this amazing community’s generosity!
When Barberton City School District announced that it had to implement pay-to-participate fees for high school and middle school athletics, marching band, and color guard, people in our community immediately began asking how they could help.
Today, we are excited to announce a brand-new fund at Barberton Community Foundation, the Barberton Student Opportunity to Participate Fund, created in partnership with Barberton City School District to connect that generosity with an important community need.
Dr. Doug Gormley made an incredibly generous gift to seed the new fund with an ambitious goal of helping cover pay-to-participate fees for Barberton families throughout the 2026-27 school year.
Joe Giovanini answered the need in a big way, too, with a generous gift focused on helping cover pay-to-participate fees for Barberton Middle School activities.
We are deeply grateful to both of them! And we’ll get to recognize a few more generous community members in the coming days.
This generosity is part of a much bigger Barberton story.
Numerous individuals and organizations have already contributed to the fund, together building a resource that can help families when the cost of participating in athletics, marching band, color guard, or other eligible activities creates a financial barrier.
For a family looking at another expense in an already tight budget, that support means so much more than help covering a fee. It means their student still gets to be on the team, march with the band, build friendships, learn discipline and leadership, and be part of something that matters to them.
That is an incredible gift to give a student and a family.
The fund is available to eligible Barberton High School and Barberton Middle School students through Barberton City School District and its partnership with Barberton Community Foundation, and we are continuing to build it for this year and for future Barberton students.
To Dr. Gormley, Joe Giovanini, and every person who has already stepped forward, thank you for believing that opportunity should remain within reach for Barberton students.
And we want to keep that momentum going, not only for students who need help today, but for generations of Barberton students to come.
The Barberton Student Opportunity to Participate Fund is designed to grow with our community’s generosity. As we continue building the fund, our goal is to create a lasting endowment that can be invested, grow over time, and help keep opportunities within reach for Barberton students year after year.
Want to help us build it for today and for the future? Make a charitable gift to the Barberton Student Opportunity to Participate Fund through Barberton Community Foundation.
Read more and donate here: https://barbertoncf.org/press-publications/barberton-student-opportunity-to-participate-fund-will-help-reduce-pay-to-participate-barriers
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