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Soccer Castoffs Give Lift To African Youth
“Do we keep the shoes with the gum on them?” she asked. “I’ve got a big clod of gum on this.” Matsumoto and four other mothers—Leah Singer, Karie Parker Davidson, Renee DeSantis and Elizabeth Hovey—were scrubbing shoes, deflating soccer balls, sorting uniforms and pairing up shin guards late last month, all for children they will never meet, more than 7,000 miles away in Zimbabwe. For the second year in a row, parent volunteers put out an end-of-the-season call to local parents for soccer uniforms and paraphernalia, to be turned over to the non-profit U.S. Africa Children’s Fellowship. The organization provides the most basic and sorely needed supplies to 75 schools in Zimbabwe. It also makes sports possible for many children who may not be able to play because they have no change of clothes, or even a pair of shoes. Castoffs from Downtown kids are helping to make the difference. “Look at this stuff,” said Singer, an organizer of the Downtown project, as she stood amid bags of shoes and jerseys. “This is the stuff that sits in your drawer. No kid wears this again.” Last month’s contributions came from children in the Downtown Soccer League and Downtown United Soccer Club after playing their last games of the season. The items were collected at P.S./I.S. 89, P.S. 234, P.S. 150, P.S. 3 and Claremont Preparatory School. A few hours into their sorting, the volunteers had already stuffed four big bags with shoes—at least 200 pairs—and there were still more coming from the group’s two sneaker scrubbers. Deflated soccer balls filled two bags and there were enough matching uniforms to all but completely outfit several teams. The project began last year when Hovey, Matsumoto and Singer went to Downtown Soccer League president Don Schuck with the idea of donating uniforms to needy kids. At the same time another parent, Cheryl Moch, approached him about the Fellowship. The women collected donations on the Battery Park City ballfields following the last games of the season. “It was the first time, so people gave us their ‘kitchen sinks’,” Singer said. “Not only did we get soccer uniforms, we got Christmas ornaments and Halloween costumes.” They also got lots of dirty uniforms that volunteers had to wash, a highly unpopular part of the effort that the organizers made sure not to repeat this year. So rather than pitching the dirty clothes right after the games, parents washed them and brought their donations to the schools on the following Monday. “People cleaned and folded their stuff this time,” Singer said. “They were so respectful.” Last year’s collection was distributed among 35 schools in Zimbabwe, said Mark Grashow, who founded the Fellowship with his wife, Sheri Saltzberg. Enough jerseys and shorts were donated that there were 300 matches, at least by color. Each school got three balls. “Balls are so highly valued they wouldn’t allow girls to play,” said Grashow, adding that the donated balls made it possible for girls to form their own teams. The benefits of the clothing donations go well beyond sports, Grashow said. After all, some of the children have never worn a pair of socks in their life. Now they can keep their feet warm enough in winter to walk to school. “It changes everything,” he said.
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