(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — After an Aurora youth football team won their regionals, a fundraising effort is now underway to help get them to the national championship in Florida.
“We have to be down there by the 1st of December, so it's a scramble to try to get some funding together to help with travel expenses for the families and kids,” said Ryan Dolan, whose son plays for the Aurora Gators — a team of 11- and 12-year-olds.
Dolan and other parents have been doing their best to raise the roughly $35,000 they think will be needed for the trip to the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando.
“It's such an incredible opportunity for the boys,” Dolan said. “They've worked so hard and they're such good kids. We'd never want them to miss out on a chance like this."
He added that they have 24 families they’re trying to help.
A GoFundMe page and other fundraising efforts have brought in about $20,000, but the team is still well short of its goal.
Coach Roy Magana said he's doing his best to keep the kids’ attention on winning the national championship — and not on the financial gap they're facing.
“That's the last thing we want them thinking about is worrying about how we're going to get funding, so they're just focusing on playing football,” Magana said.
Magana said any help they can get to help the team compete in Orlando is “awesome.”
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