Kickball for Africa
Grace Lutheran Church is gearing up to help young people in
African communities by hosting a kickball tournament.
The tournament will be open to the
public and held at Watauga High School on Saturday, Oct. 27, with a rain date set for Saturday, Dec.
1.
The entrance fee will be $100 per team or $10 per person, and there are no age
requirements. Teams can be intergenerational, and families are encouraged to participate, along with
sports teams, college students and high school students, as well as children and adults.
All
proceeds will be sent to Grassroot Soccer, with whom Grace Lutheran is partnering. Grassroot Soccer
uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize communities in South Africa, Zambia and
Zimbabwe to stop the spread of HIV and envisions a world mobilized through soccer to create an
AIDS-free generation.
Grassroot Soccer partners include Bill Gates, Elton John, Nike, Ford,
Johnson & Johnson and many other reputable organizations. Grassroot Soccer empowers local
community role models (professional soccer players, youth sport coaches, teachers, peer educators,
etc.) with the tools to educate both in-school and out-of-school youth in their communities.
According to the organization, 524,869 youth worldwide have graduated from Grassroot Soccer HIV
prevention programs; and by World Cup 2014, Grassroot Soccer is expected to reach 1 million
youth.
Grace Lutheran’s tournament will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 27,
featuring a 16-team bracket with four games playing simultaneously. Appalachian State University
athletes will officiate the games.
The team registration deadline is Oct. 10, in order to get
team T-shirts printed with sponsor logos on back. Each team will have its own shirts, with each team
sporting a different color. The event promises food, a DJ, prizes and awards, and organizers are
still seeking participants, sponsorships and donations.
For more information, or to register,
contact Alison Moser at (828) 265-2834 or (almoser@charter.net)
To learn more about Grassroot
Soccer, visit http://www.grassrootsoccer.org.
