Kickin It For a Cure

Doing something meaningful for society is a hard goal to accomplish because who really makes the rules and decides what is meaningful. I figured when I did it, I would just know.
This fall I have been coaching the boys soccer team at school. They are really nice kids and we worked very closely with the girls team. A few weeks ago the school nurse mentioned an idea to raise money for women with breast cancer. She had heard of the idea at her daughters school and felt like we could pull off something similar. The other coach and I jumped at the chance. We had the resources and a well-behaved motivated group of students. Why not? I then spent the next few weeks crazily organizing things. We bought T-shirts to sell, made pink ribbons, set up a snack stand, and hyped up the charity soccer game. There were posters, announcements, donations, everything. Our idea was to call the event Kickin' It For a Cure and sell a few T-shirts and cupcakes at a game where the boys would be all decked out in pink. A week later we were completely sold out of pre-orders and were turning people away. 70+ people from school planned to attend the game. The principal allowed us to all wear our shirts on the same day. It blew up!
The day of the game it was pouring but we wanted to play anyway because of the charity event. I was a nervous wreck all day running around trying to get everything together with the other organizers. We got the kids into the bus, drove over to the field all ready to play in the rain, and the other team never showed up. Whomp whomp. So we drove back to school and gave away the raffle prizes and snacks to the team. We decorated the cafeteria instead of the field. And although we had that little bump in the road (ok it was kind of a big bump since we never actually played the charity game) it all worked out in the end. We raised $331 which will go directly to women in the area through the South Jersey Breast Cancer Coalition.
I felt good about helping others, and I felt even better that I had helped spread that positive giving attitude onto the team. Maybe some day one of them will remember me and this event and do something else to help others.

 I have some cute pictures of the team and the kids psyched up for the game, however, I can't post pictures of other people's children online. So instead here is a picture of me, the other coach, the lady who made the gift baskets, and the lady who came up with the idea.

 

Here is a close up of what the shirts looked like. I was super happy with them!

 

 

Goal accomplished: Do something meaningful for society--check! 18 down, 12 to go!