Project Play: Southeast Michigan Honored with Detroit Sports Commission Community Impact Award
Project Play: Southeast Michigan was recognized with the Detroit Sports Commission’s Community Impact Award during the 2026 Amazon Prep Kickoff Classic, held August 26–28 at Tom Adams Field on the campus of Wayne State University in Midtown Detroit. Executive Director of Project Play: Southeast Michigan Pat Sharrow accepted the award on behalf of the initiative and the broad coalition of partners behind it.
Founded in 2005, the Amazon Prep Kickoff Classic is Michigan’s premier season-opening high school football showcase and an annual staple of the state’s prep football tradition, delivering a bowl game–like experience for student-athletes across the Midwest. This year’s event featured four marquee matchups with teams from southeast and western Michigan and Indiana, along with the third annual Girls Flag Football Showcase and an all-new girls flag skills clinic. It was a fitting stage for an award about the power of sport to bring a community together.
Project Play: Southeast Michigan served as a partner on the event and was presented with the award during the second day of programming. While presenting the award, the Detroit Sports Commission said, “This award honors an individual or organization making a lasting impact by elevating their community through sports, programming, partnerships, and service. We celebrate Pat Sharrow, and Project Play: Southeast Michigan, for their commitment to creating opportunities, bringing people together and strengthening our community through the power of sports.”
Pat Sharrow accepting the Detroit Sports Commission Community Impact Award from Detroit Sports Commission Executive Director Marty Dobek on August 27, 2026.
The recognition arrives on the heels of one of the initiative’s most significant milestones to date: the launch of the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports. That effort brought Project Play: Southeast Michigan together with all four of Detroit’s professional sports teams, the Detroit Sports Commission and a growing roster of community partners around a shared set of commitments to young athletes in the game — the kind of cross-sector alignment that rarely happens in youth sports, and that took years of relationship-building to reach.
That launch, like this award, belongs to many hands. It reflects the coaches who show up for practice, the parks and recreation staff who open their facilities, the school districts and nonprofits expanding programming, the funders who back the work, and the families who entrust their children to it. Project Play’s role is to convene and support that coalition, but truly, the impact is created by the people in it.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the Detroit Sports Commission for this recognition, which is a direct reflection of the incredible work of our Project Play: Southeast Michigan team and the many partners and communities who are building this movement alongside us. It’s energizing to see that collective work recognized and reinforces why we do it — to bring people together and create more opportunities for young people across southeast Michigan to grow, belong, and thrive through quality sport and play experiences. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but moments like this remind us that we’re building momentum and moving in the right direction.”
— Pat Sharrow, Executive Director, Project Play: Southeast Michigan
While we celebrate the recognition of our efforts with our partnership community, the work continues. Project Play: Southeast Michigan’s fall calendar includes free Power Hour workshops and coach trainings across three counties — each one an invitation for more organizations to join. Additionally, we continue to meet with grassroots organizations across our seven-county footprint that continue to energize us and excite our partnership team around our joint pursuits, with a goal of bringing their expertise and strengths to the forefront and accelerating our shared mission to support youth sports organizations, leaders, coaches and athletes in our region.
Learn more and get involved
The Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports is where this coalition’s commitments live. Visit our Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports page to see the impact we’re making alongside our community partners and to consider joining us in these efforts.