NATA Now

On May 29, 2014, President Barack Obama announced an important new partnership between NATA, the NFL and the Professional Football Athletic Trainers’ Association (PFATS) during the White House Healthy Kids and Concussion Summit in Washington, DC.. As part of the collaboration, the NFL Foundation and NFL teams agreed to provide $1 million and NATA added agreed to contribute $125,000 to place ATs in underserved high schools in NFL markets.
 

There's no shortage of holiday spirit among athletic trainers, evidenced by the creative decor we've seen circulating on social media. 

From the University of Maine's star made of pre-wrap, or Bay City High School's Christmas tree adorned with Gatorade cups and athletic tape, keep scrolling to see our  round-up of the most festive AT facilities we've seen yet. (Scroll down to see the array of NATA staffers' tacky sweaters, too!) We're especially loving Ashley Smith's handmade tree topper made of Gatorade cups:

My wife showed me a video on YouTube the other day of a little girl standing on the bathroom counter giving herself a pep talk.  She goes through a number of different things she likes about herself, her family and her house before hopping down and proceeding with her day as usual (If you haven’t seen it, it is pretty cute.)
 

Thousands of people around the world are celebrating #GivingTuesday today, a global day dedicated to giving back. On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give.
 

by John Doherty, ATC, PT

As the media assault on football in general and the NFL in particular has continued unabated this autumn (it still is autumn, isn’t it?), a detailed study of medical expenditures by sport was released earlier this season by Ohio State University.

We were elated by the great response we received for the #ATsAre Social Media Contest as far as the great number and quality of entries. We could not have predicted that when it came to choosing the winner the effort would be even more amazing. Supporters turned out in force to the tune of over 15, 000 votes being cast. Congratulations to West Chester University’s Amy Toner (@93AmyT) who will receive the grand prize of free registration, airfare and lodging for NATA 2015.

By Thad Walker, MS, ATC
Millikin University
 

by John Doherty, ATC, PT
 

The #ATsAre Social Media Contest ended last week and the response was fantastic. We received nearly 150 photo entries and the hashtag was used almost 900 times during the contest. So who will be taking home the prizes? Well, that’s where we need your help. We were so impressed by the creativity shown in the number of entries we received that we had a hard time choosing who we thought was the very best. We did manage to narrow it down to 15 of our favorite entries (which was a tough task in itself!) but now we need your help to choose the winners.