Former South Carolina middle distance runner David Olds always made time, not just on the track, but in taking time to serve others. The 2022 SEC Brad Davis Male Community Service Leader of the Year honoree moved up to Boston after graduating in May to work at the non-profit, Good Sports, Inc., where he is making a difference in the lives of children on a daily basis.
“Our mission is to drive sports equity and opportunity for young people and communities that are high need,” said Olds, who graduated in May with a degree in political science and geography. “We do that by donating brand new sports equipment to those communities to support their chance to participate in sports and receive all the benefits that come with being involved in sports.
“We have partners such as Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, and some professional sports teams that will donate equipment and money to us so that we can get it into these communities. We cover all ages. It’s for kids ages three to eighteen.”
While he’s working in the northeast, Good Sports is a national organization with a large reach and allows him to still make a difference in his home state of North Carolina as well as the South Carolina community that was a big part of his life for four years.
“We do have community organizations that we support in North Carolina and South Carolina,” said Olds. “One of the things that I’m really excited about is that I’m able to use my connections from South Carolina and North Carolina and get Good Sports involved in those areas and have more touch points in the communities that I belonged to or that my friends and mentors belonged to, in order to get sports equipment to places that I feel a close connection.”
Olds’ service to his community goes all the way back prior to his attending South Carolina and being a member of the track and field team. He founded “Wiley’s Warriors” while in high school to raise awareness of childhood hunger and organized food drives in the area by assisting Calvin Wiley Elementary in Greensboro. At South Carolina, Olds was the Community Service Chair for the Gamecock Athletics Student-Athlete Advisory Council and was the lead volunteer coordinator for the City of Columbia Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census, worked with the Columbia Urban League Young Professionals (CULYP), managed student-athlete volunteers to polling places to pass out water and food, volunteered with the Out of the Garden Project in…