When I was a teenager, I loved playing team sports. My only problem was that my family could not afford sports equipment.

So I couldn’t shoot “hoops” by myself in the nearby playground because we didn’t have a basketball. When we played baseball, I would try to borrow a glove from someone on the other team – or play without a glove. When we played tackle football in West Oak Lane’s Kemble Park, I envied the other kids because most of them had shoulder pads, knee pads, and helmets. And I didn’t have Jenna Seidman to come to my rescue.

Seidman, a junior at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (SCH), has initiated a program she calls the Chestnut Hill Sports Exchange, which collects new and “gently used” sports equipment, sells it at an 80 percent discount, and donates the proceeds to Leveling the Playing Field, a nonprofit that provides sports equipment to low-income youth.

By selling the used equipment, rather than donating it directly, she said she’s also generating a second opportunity to help those who need it. “There are people in the SCH community, and outside it, who could also benefit from cheaper sports equipment,” she said. “My overall mission is to make sports accessible for all.”

Seidman, an SCH varsity tennis player who has also played soccer for years, was inspired by her mother to start her project. “My mom works for an organization called Mitzvah Circle,” said Jenna. “They give clothing to the needy, so I thought what about sports equipment? So last year, we collected lots of golf balls, basketballs, and lacrosse sticks and gave them to the Chestnut Hill Sports Exchange. It's not cheap to get good sports equipment.”

Seidman is doing this because a recent Sports & Fitness Industry Association survey reported that only 38 percent of children from families with a household income of $25,000 or less play team sports, compared to 67 percent from homes with annual incomes of $100,000 or more.

And, she said, she believes that “every child should benefit from sports, regardless of their economic background.”

Seidman started last year by reaching out to her mother's Facebook page contacts. This year she is asking SCH students and their parents for donations. “People outgrow the equipment or just don't play that sport anymore,” she said. “Usually, this equipment would just be thrown away.”

Seidman and six other student volunteers planned to launch the new effort on Jan. 15, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. On Jan. 29, they’ll be putting large bins in the SCH lower school, middle school, and upper school where anyone can place used sports equipment.

Then, on Feb. 23 and March 1, the equipment will be sold at very deep discounts, and proceeds will be donated to Leveling the Playing Field.

Julie Knutson, a teacher with SCH's Middle School Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) and author of the book “The Science and Technology of Marie Curie,” said Jenna has been as committed to this project as she is to her own sports program and has been working on it for the past year and a half.

“Jenna wants to eliminate the financial barrier to entry that so many sports pose,” Knutson said. “Her project is anchored in a strong belief in the power of sport, both for individuals and communities.”

Seidman developed her plan as part of her participation in SCH's CEL Venture Accelerator, an elective program for students who are interested in pursuing a business venture beyond the CEL core curriculum in the 11th and 12th grades. Individuals or teams apply to participate by submitting their ideas for review and, if selected, they are partnered with experienced mentors who help them take an idea from a rough concept to the outcome.

Seidman's project was just one of nine service projects organized by SCH students on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

“My parents are proud of me,” said Seidman, who lives in Upper Dublin with her parents, Michael and Rhonda, sister Madelyn, 13, also an SCH student, and a two-year-old hamster.

For more information, visit sch.org. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.co