Francis Parker School sophomore Arden Pala has been named Sports Illustrated’s 2024 “SportsKid of the Year.”
The annual award honors young people aged 7 to 15 for superior performance on the field, in the classroom and service in the community.
The 15-year-old excels in the latter category. Four years ago, Pala founded Sports4Kids (he’s the CEO). The primary goal of the nonprofit is to engage unsheltered and low-income kids in sports and physical fitness programs to promote teamwork and bonding.
“When I started hearing people’s stories about being homeless it opened my eyes,” he says. “It changed the way I look at things. This work comes from my heart.”
To date, Sports4Kids has involved more than 750 young people in team sports. While dedicating 7,500 hours to youth volunteer work, the organization has also assembled 6,000 hygiene kits and served more than 1,000 meals to adults and children.
Along with Sports4Kids clinics, Pala also organized a GearUp Initiative that collects and distributes sports equipment.
Sports4Kids has raised more than $250,000 in donations to support its programs. A prominent donor is the Lucky Duck Foundation, which reacted enthusiastically when informed about Pala’s award.
“He’s a fantastic, fantastic kid who in his young life has done an amazing amount of work to help youth in need,” Lucky Duck Foundation CEO Drew Moser says. “He’s a super young man from a family with a huge heart, and he’s got an outstanding future ahead.”
Pala’s mother, Zeynep Ilgaz, says community service is a major part of their family, which includes an elder son, Kenan. Ilgaz and her husband, Serhat Pala, immigrated from Turkey in 1998, arriving with just four suitcases to start a new life. They ran into financial barriers but benefactors helped out. The couple were able to complete their graduate studies at San Diego State University then co-founded Confirm Biosciences, a diagnostics company they sold in 2020.
When Arden was five years old, his mother started taking him with her to various charitable outreach programs. “At first he just helped give out food, but over the years this became part of who he is,” Ilgaz says.
Pala’s passion to start a nonprofit came from volunteering to read to students at Perkins Elementary in Barrio Logan. The K-8 population at Perkins is 97% minority and 93% economically disadvantaged. It’s estimated a third of the students are homeless.
After reading one of the three children’s books he’s written (he’s also created a documentary film), Pala was chatting with Perkins Principal Fernando Hernandez. Then 11, Pala was surprised to hear the school had let its gym teacher go due to budgetary restrictions.
Pala conferred with his parents and they approved of him volunteering to coach kids in basketball once a week. The Perkins sports clinic was the seed. He recalls calling around to nearly a dozen schools in San Diego County and found most didn’t have after-school sports activities. When Pala formed Sports4Kids the clinic program expanded.
Sports Illustrated isn’t the only organization taking notice of the 15-year-old go-getter. He received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in May 2024. On his birthday last year the City of San Diego proclaimed February 23 “Arden Pala Day.”
As yet, the teen doesn’t have a driver’s license. He’s eager to get one – and just as motivated to prove that people his age can contribute to society.
“I think there are a lot of kids who want to do good for the community… and we’re legit,” he says. “I hope more kids don’t get overlooked and their ideas are supported.”
He wants everybody to know that giving back to the community feels good.
“I remember after reading to kids at Perkins there was a boy who thanked me by giving me one of his favorite baseball cards,” Pala says. “It was really sweet. He didn’t have to do that.”
Cheers to that earnest gesture of adolescent gratitude; and for this fresh-faced wellspring of life’s intangible gifts. SDSun
