Hello, soccer people!

I was doing some early spring cleaning in the closet of just one of my three soccer playing boys recently during which I uncovered an oversized pile of gently used but obsolete soccer uniforms.  What to do with all of these uniforms plus the other two piles of similarly gently used but obsolete uni’s hiding in the other boys closets?

After doing some research online, I discovered the US Soccer Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to funding worthy projects and promoting the growth of the soccer. The U.S. Soccer Foundation has one simple mission statement that guides their wide range of initiatives:

“To enhance, assist and grow the sport of soccer in the United States.”

One of these initiatives is to support a project called Passback, a collection of such gently used uniforms as those lurking in the bottom of all of our athletes closets, to be donated to those who might otherwise be unable to afford them, here and around the world.  In years past, the collections have taken place at each of the Major League Soccer stadia around the country, with many of the most recent collections being sent to the Gulf Coast, with the help of their partner Eurosport. This year, they are introducing collections at local youth tournaments and thus, the reason for this email.

The US Soccer Foundation will be co-hosting a Passback Collection over the Memorial Day Weekend during the 24th Annual Newtown Kickoff Tournament, May 27 and 28 between the hours of 8 am and 4 pm. Donations can be made at the Passback booth at Treadwell Park.

However, we believe that a treasure trove of this stuff belongs to premier athletes and realizing that most of these clubs are away on tournament during that weekend,  we are offering drop offs/pick ups by appointment.  If the team managers can get the word out and coordinate a team collection, then we would be willing to pick up the stuff prior to the collection.

If you have any questions at all, please call Lori and Chris Hoagland at 270-7571 or email dishseventeen@charter.net. To learn more about Passback, visit www.passback.com or www.ussoccerfoundation.org.

– Lori Hoagland