A couple weeks ago I was contacted by my former employer, The Greenwich Country Day School, about an all-school fundraising event called the “GCDS Walk-a-thon.” This walk-a-thon is an event that raises money for two NGOs every fall—one domestic and one international. Students, faculty and staff spend an entire day walking laps around the school campus and earn donations per miles completed. This year the GCDS community selected Teach for America and GrassrootSoccer as the organizations to support. The event was a great success, raising over $5,000 for GRS, and in a notable departure from the traditional GCDS walk-a-thon, participants embraced the GRS vision and dribbled the majority of their miles.
Somewhere over 6,000 miles away, on a different continent, in the opposite hemisphere, on a seemingly sunny October afternoon, me and a small group of fellow GRS interns embarked upon a similar expedition. This adventure unfolded in the sparkling city of Kimberley, South Africa. The four interns, me, Kristin Fladseth, Anna Barrett, and Lindsay Rotherham, were outfitted with only our strong wills and two Nike soccer balls. Our goal: to dribble approximately 15 km from our home, throughout the heavily trafficked roads and lively neighborhoods of Galeshewe, the nearby township, and finally looping back to return home.
Excitement was in the air with a fast approaching storm in the distance and many kilometers to be traveled. We started strong on some of the quieter and well-maintained streets of the city. As they neared the township limits, however, the atmosphere changed, and we were greeted by honking cars and enthusiastic bystanders. Interest mounted as we, clad in bright yellow GrassrootSoccer t-shirts, dribbled toward a local park and called out to people in the native Setswana. Slowly but surely kids emerged from their homes to join in the football festivities, including participants from the most recent Skillz Holiday Programmes.
A left hand turn took us onto the busiest road of Galeshewe, where we were ambushed by horde of intrigued and ecstatic kids. It took only a few passes and dribbles amongst the group of twenty plus children before they were totally hooked to us strange yellow-shirt foreigners. Together, we continued on down the road into the heart of Galeshewe, laughing, dribbling, dancing and generally loving this bizarre experience. When we reached the round-about in town center, storm clouds had fully formed and rain began to fall upon this unlikely group. Grabbing as many of the small boys and girls into our arms as we could we headed for shelter into a local school. After several minutes of soccer drills underneath an overhang, lightning moved us once again, this time into a classroom. Amazingly, there were still a few biscuits available to give the brave soccer soldiers who ran barefoot through the rain and muck to this location. The lightning provided an opportunity for some familiar American games. Heads up, seven up was a big hit as the kids struggled to guess which Intern had selected them. Eventually the sky’s cleared and the group began their long journey back home. A joyous yet sad goodbye was said to the young, shivering troopers as the wet, deflated soccer balls rolled on their proverbial path through Galeshewe Park and back onto the wide, soggy road home!
Somewhere over 6,000 miles away, on a different continent, in the opposite hemisphere, on a seemingly sunny October afternoon, me and a small group of fellow GRS interns embarked upon a similar expedition. This adventure unfolded in the sparkling city of Kimberley, South Africa. The four interns, me, Kristin Fladseth, Anna Barrett, and Lindsay Rotherham, were outfitted with only our strong wills and two Nike soccer balls. Our goal: to dribble approximately 15 km from our home, throughout the heavily trafficked roads and lively neighborhoods of Galeshewe, the nearby township, and finally looping back to return home.
Excitement was in the air with a fast approaching storm in the distance and many kilometers to be traveled. We started strong on some of the quieter and well-maintained streets of the city. As they neared the township limits, however, the atmosphere changed, and we were greeted by honking cars and enthusiastic bystanders. Interest mounted as we, clad in bright yellow GrassrootSoccer t-shirts, dribbled toward a local park and called out to people in the native Setswana. Slowly but surely kids emerged from their homes to join in the football festivities, including participants from the most recent Skillz Holiday Programmes.
A left hand turn took us onto the busiest road of Galeshewe, where we were ambushed by horde of intrigued and ecstatic kids. It took only a few passes and dribbles amongst the group of twenty plus children before they were totally hooked to us strange yellow-shirt foreigners. Together, we continued on down the road into the heart of Galeshewe, laughing, dribbling, dancing and generally loving this bizarre experience. When we reached the round-about in town center, storm clouds had fully formed and rain began to fall upon this unlikely group. Grabbing as many of the small boys and girls into our arms as we could we headed for shelter into a local school. After several minutes of soccer drills underneath an overhang, lightning moved us once again, this time into a classroom. Amazingly, there were still a few biscuits available to give the brave soccer soldiers who ran barefoot through the rain and muck to this location. The lightning provided an opportunity for some familiar American games. Heads up, seven up was a big hit as the kids struggled to guess which Intern had selected them. Eventually the sky’s cleared and the group began their long journey back home. A joyous yet sad goodbye was said to the young, shivering troopers as the wet, deflated soccer balls rolled on their proverbial path through Galeshewe Park and back onto the wide, soggy road home!
What an inspiring story! Well done, dribblers!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds awesome dude. I'm really enjoying reading your posts. Keep it up!
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