True Competitors is a nonprofit organization with a goal to connect children in hospitals with professional athletes, and it’s going to do so with a mobile application that will be launched shortly.
“The app will function similar to other social media-type apps,” said Danny Chait, the President & CEO of True Competitors. “It will have a home feed, chat feed and an Instagram-like photo gallery.”
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The organization was born out of compassion for one child and grew out of compassion for many. Chait and founder Casey Coleman met in November of 2015 while with USA Baseball. Chait was the press officer for the team while Casey was a pitcher. Following the tournament, which took place in Taiwan and Japan, Coleman introduced Chait to the idea of True Competitors.
The idea to form the organization came from Coleman, who while in the Kansas City Royals organization had a teammate whose son, Miles, had cancer. Some of his teammates would send videos, photos and messages to Miles, reassuring him that he had a strong support group. Chait thought it would be great to develop an app that would be solely dedicated to creating those support groups.
The children will have full control within the app and can select their favorite sports team. Once selected, their home feed will include all social media posts from that team. “The child will have the ability to send messages directly to their favorite teams,” Chait said. “The message will be sent to whoever is running their social media account; usually those people are in contact with the players.”
One of the benefits of the app is the direct connection between the children and the players. There would be no need for a coordination between a professional team and a hospital. “With this app, we don’t want to deal with that,” Chait said. “Basically, we’re giving the access of the app to the hospital, and they’re going to identify kids to participate in programs.”
For the hospitals that True Competitors partners with down the road, the organization is aiming to provide them with iPads for the children. “What that is (the program) is basically for every kid that visits a hospital, (children’s hospitals) try to make the visit as normal as possible,” Chait said.
The program would include rooms for arts and crafts and places where the children can go to hang out and relax.
The app itself was made with the realization that it’s very difficult to find time for face-to-face meetings, and if they happen, they’re short. The goal was to develop an app that would encourage a constant line of communication regardless of where the team or child is.
Chait and Coleman, who pitched in the Tampa Bay Rays organization this season after four years in the Major Leagues with the Royals and Chicago Cubs, believe that the organization and its upcoming app will go a long way in creating a support group that children in these situations so badly need.