Alaska nonprofit helps get more kids in the game
The Game Changer fund gives grants to support activity
DECEMBER 9, 2025 – Jeriah got called to the gym at the end of a school day this fall.
A few people were waiting for the fourth-grader there at Tudor Elementary School in Anchorage: His principal, physical education teacher Mike Cragen, a coordinator from the nonprofit Healthy Futures program, and his mother. They had all worked together through Alaska’s Game Changer fund to surprise Jeriah with a new bike.
Anchorage School District staff filmed the special delivery to a boy who loved riding a bike, but didn’t have one of his own. Cragen and Jeriah’s mom, Michelle Scott, submitted the Game Changer fund application to support the 9-year-old who they call awesome, kind and caring. Cragen said he knew Jeriah loved the movement, freedom and open air he felt on the seat of a bicycle. When they wheeled out the new black bike that fall afternoon, Jeriah stared at it with his hands on the seat and handlebars.
“I feel like I’m going to cry,” he said, as his mom came up to give him a hug.
“Sometimes our happy emotions make us cry too,” she said.
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Bikes, shoes and more – Game Changer meets the need for each child
The donated bike is just one example out of hundreds of grants supported through Alaska’s Game Changer fund. Healthy Futures, a longtime partner of the State of Alaska Play Every Day campaign, started Game Changer in October 2021. Many Alaska children know about Healthy Futures because it’s been offering a free school-based physical activity challenge for more than 20 years.
Healthy Futures added Game Changer because many families need financial help to pay the fees or equipment costs for their child’s sporting activities. Over the past four years, Game Changer grants have covered the costs of those fees and equipment, shoes and clothing, skills training, transportation to sports activities, and more. Game Changer has awarded more than $100,000 in grants through 243 applications that support Alaska children ages 5-18 across the state, said Kayla Williamson, coordinator for Healthy Futures. The Game Changer fund prioritizes grants to families who have demonstrated financial need. Healthy Futures awards grants using funds it has raised or received through community groups and individual donations.
For Jeriah, Game Changer provided the bike and more. Months earlier, Jeriah had joined summer school at Tudor Elementary. The school’s staff had checked out a bike trailer from the school district so kids could get out and ride. Cragen, Tudor’s PE teacher, heard how much Jeriah loved biking. He talked with Williamson from Healthy Futures at a school event and asked if Jeriah might be a match for a Game Changer grant. The two worked together with Jeriah’s mom to surprise him. In the gym after school that afternoon, they presented Jeriah with a pair of bike gloves. Then they gave him a bike lock, a grey helmet, and finally a black bike that had been sized for Jeriah.
“That was a very special moment, I think, for everyone in that room,” Williamson said.
“He was on that bike and riding in circles around the gym.”
Scott, Jeriah’s mom, said the bike meant a lot to Jeriah and the family. The bike gave Jeriah one more way to get out and be active with friends in the neighborhood. Game Changer made that happen, she said, because the family couldn’t afford a bike for Jeriah without the program’s support.
Grants support active kids in smaller communities
Game Changer has awarded other grants supporting children in big and small communities throughout Alaska. Williamson said they received an application from a teacher at a small rural school that had recently been built. The new school had a fitness room but no budget to put any fitness equipment in there. A Game Changer grant supported buying an adjustable set of weights that the students and whole community could use to stay active year-round.
A track and field coach in Unalakleet requested a tent that showed the school’s name and colors. The school didn’t have one, and the tent could be used for multiple activities.
“Having a place where we are able to keep our things, stay dry, rest, and hang out during the long track meets would make the experiences more enjoyable and allow us to feel like we belong and have a place," wrote coach Mori Busk in the Game Changer application submitted on behalf of the student athletes. After receiving the grant, Busk shared a photograph of the athletes smiling as a team in front of their new tent.
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Find and apply for Game Changer grants online
Throughout the year, Healthy Futures staff consider and approve Game Changer fund applications for children. Any adult can apply. That includes a parent, coach like Busk, teacher like Cragen, principal or nurse. The grant, however, must go toward helping a child or group of children. Each grant request must be $500 or less, Williamson said.
Game Changer applications include a brief summary of the financial need, how the grant will be used, and the academic accomplishments of the children involved. Families need help sometimes, Cragen said, and Healthy Futures’s Game Changer program is there to offer that help.
“It was pretty obvious their heart was just into getting kids moving and keeping them healthy and happy,” Cragen said. “It’s an amazing program. It’s an amazing thing for our students and our community.”
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