EVERLASTING SUPPORT 'Athletics For Kids' founding sponsors (left to right) Craig Knapton, Bob Rabnett and Nick De Cotiis, along with foundation president Shane Collins, hold up a pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to be auctioned at the third annual Gala Dinner featuring Live Olympic Boxing at Hollyburn Country Club
Letting Kids Be Kids
North Shore foundation popular with businessmen.
Three North Shore men have, once again, put their money where their hearts are in support of a local foundation. Nick De Cotiis, Craig Knapton and Bob Rabnett were the founding sponsors of Athletics For Kids (A4K) back in 2002, when West Vancouver’s Shane Collins and a few like-minded friends set out to help North Shore kids who couldn’t afford to play sports.
Three years later, the foundation has helped dozens of such children participate in local amateur athletics, from hockey to gymnastics, from soccer to softball. Earlier this week De Cotiis and Rabnett signed on again as year-long sponsors with A4K, while Knapton, owner of CanKen International Wood Products, increased his participation in the foundation recently when he was appointed as an A4K board director. “I like A4K because it is a grassroots, community based program,” said Rabnett, president of Trade Lane Solutions. “You know it impacts directly the community you live in.” A4K’s major annual fundraiser is a gala dinner featuring live Olympic boxing at Hollyburn Country Club. The third annual fundraiser goes next Thursday evening and, as has been the case in the first two years, is a complete sellout.
In addition to Collins and Knapton, A4K board directors include former Vancouver Canuck Dave Babych, North Shore Outlook managing editor Andrew McCredie, QMFM’s Tara McGuire, North Shore businessman Chris Obst and former super welterweight champion of the world and Burnaby boxing club owner/operator Manny Sobral.
