Leadership Through Athletics hosted its first annual food and clothing drive on Saturday, February 19th at their youth center located in Lansdowne, highlighted by a visit from the Baltimore Orioles' mascot, The Bird. The drive benefited the "I Can" Transitional Shelter for Women and Children and the C.A.N. Riverview Resource Center. The drive received much support from the local community, including a very large donation from Town and Country Caterers, a business located up the street from the facility. Their donation added 75 packages of bread loaves and bagels, 35 apple pies and 30 boxes of Tasty Cake products. These items will be frozen to preserve freshness.

Volunteers separated, folded and boxed up the donations for hours that included 12 boxes of women's clothing, 12 boxes of children's clothing, 5 boxes of men's clothing and several boxes of jackets and shoes. Along with the clothing, LTA also collected over 125 canned goods and over 100 miscellaneous items that included pasta, cereal, snack items and sauces. The most impressive collection was approximately 200 VHS tapes to add to the video library at the "I Can" Transitional Shelter.

Leadership Through Athletics' Director of Development, Christian Metzger, adds "having The Bird around for the drive created a great, positive energy and he was a huge hit with the 100 plus children in Leadership Gym at the time. It is a great thing when two organizations can team up for one cause, to help the community."