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Devyn Baldus, Zoe Moura, and I did our leadership project for Soccer Pro’s international collection of soccer items for kids that need them. First, we gave out flyers to RAGE teams, as well as our team—U11 Grey—to show that we would be putting out collection boxes for a week at the Sports Park in Pleasanton. After a week, we had collected many items such as balls, backpacks, flags, shin guards, socks, cleats, uniforms, and flags. On December 14th, we went to Soccer Pro to drop off the items we had collected. We got to see pictures of past collections that went to Haiti, and Costa Rica, as well as receiving Soccer Pro t-shirts (pictured at bottom) to commemorate the collection. I learned that it is very simple to make people’s lives much, much happier. I am so glad that we got to help many kids have soccer equipment!

Julianna Pereira

 Posted: 1/5/12

For my service project I decided to volunteer at our local E-Soccer program. It is an organization throughout California that helps kids with mental challenges play soccer and get out of the house in a good environment. I mostly worked with kids from ages four to seven, and it was really gratify to see these kids, and being able to work with them. I felt really blessed seeing how easy my life was compared to the kids and the parents. It was also interesting to see these kids playing the sport I loved, and enjoying it just as much as me. It really brought back memories, or feelings of when I was little and how much I loved to play the game. Because now soccer can sometimes be all about winning, training, and just being the champion player out there that you kind of lose some of the love of the game. However, teaching these kids really reminded me that the game of soccer isn’t about politics but getting out and having fun like I used to. It was interesting to see how the kids could teach you just as much as you could teach them. Also how they were extremely energetic. I also learned some new coaching strategies, and just how you interact with these kids, because yes they are different. You have to teach them differently and treat them differently sometimes, but they do care a lot about the game and having fun. You might have to communicate with these kids differently but I know they are just as intelligent, and wonderful as any other kids you could meet; even if they were a little hard to handle sometimes. It was amazing also seeing so many other helpers coming out to play with them too, I even got my teammate Erin to help out which was really fun, seeing her play with the kids as well. I feel extremely blessed by this because I hope not only did I give something, but I know that I received something from these kids as well. A new found love of the game because of how much you could see they loved being out there, because this was special for them, and they didn’t always get to do it, and it was amazing seeing their energy and the happiness in their eyes when they scored a goal or kicked a ball; something I will always remember and cherish.

Amanda Chun

Posted: 1/5/12

For my leadership project I decided to write letters to service people and collect items to send overseas in care packages.  I knew that the soldiers like to receive mail and care packages from back home so I wanted to give back to them since they are sacrificing time with their families to keep our country safe.  The organization that I chose to go through is called Blue Star Moms of the East Bay.  I asked family & family friends to contribute what they could and I used my own money too.  I bought things such as snacks, toiletries, batteries, etc and I also wrote letters to be included in the packages .  The website that you can visit if you would like to show your support to our troops is www.bluestarmoms.org.

 Ariana Cisneros, U11 Grey

Posted: 1/3/11

For my leadership project, I looked up some websites and called a few places that need warm blankets. I just happened to come across the Shepherd’s Gate. The mission at Shepherd’s Gate is to meet the practical, spiritual, and emotional needs of battered and homeless women and children through the love of Jesus Christ, equipping them to lead a life of faith, hope, and love and to reach out to others in His name.  Shepherd’s Gate is a shelter of kids and moms that have been abused. So I decided to make three blankets for the homeless children and moms, which is just in time for the cold and long winter.  We went and purchased fleece fabrics, matching threads, and needles to complete our needed materials.  My mom and I worked together.  I put pins all around the cut-off fabric and to fasten them into place, and then Mom sewed them together for a finished blanket.  We delivered the blankets on December 30 at their Livermore site.
 
This was a very fun process working with my mom and at the same time it gave me pride and joy to have achieved this goal in my small way to help out needy kids and abused moms.   Just a little tip for you all, don’t do this last minute, do it way before the holidays to beat the crowd.

The people in charge were very friendly and appreciative that I chose Shepherd’s Gate.

  Jenyce Dutcher
U12 Rage White Team

Posted: 1/3/11

For our leadership project, we collected toys for Toys for Tots.  We made flyers and gave them out to neighbors, friends and teammates.  They were also given the option to make a monetary donation on line.  We had great results.  Items collected include:  Books, board and card games, educational and baby toys, art supplies and stuffed animals.  We even received clothes. 

Collecting for Toys for Tots was a great experience and now more kids can have a great Christmas.
Lauren Epps, U14AC

Posted: 1/3/11

We participated in the Soccer Leadership Program and at the end of the program we had to do a community service project. We all got together and decided to do a children’s book drive. We all took action in different ways. Some talked to their class, while others collected books from their neighborhood. We set a goal for the group to collect 500 books.

 We decided the books we collected would be donated to Books for Barrios. Books for Barrios is an organization that collects all different things from books to gently used clothing and toys for underprivileged children in the Philippians. A couple times a year, they will go to the Philippians and give all of the kids and schools the donations they collected. When we delivered the books, they gave us a tour of the warehouse and we also helped pack boxes for their next delivery. They were thrilled at how many books we had collected-there were over 800 books!!! We all loved knowing that we helped many kids in need. This experience was amazing and from now on we will help people more often.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Leadership class.

Audrey Goodman, Tami Kwong, Taylor Noval, Nicole Riordan, Lilly Ryan

Posted: 1/3/11

Hi my name is Lailinda Xu. Have you ever seen your grandparents not able to say any words, like, can’t pronounce it? Probably not, if your grandparent’s native language is English. That’s why I decided for my community project I decided to go to my grandparent’s senior center and teach some of their friends (including them) English, because they take English as a 2nd language, not their native language. I taught them things like grocery shopping, how to look at commercials, a map of Pleasanton and how to say cities near them, like Dublin, Fremont, etc. I also taught them some holiday songs for them to sing on Christmas, or their birthday, since they didn’t always know what to sing or do during a holiday party. Lastly, I taught them some of the addresses, or how to say them, like the Pleasanton Public Library. I think this helped them because now they know some of the basics, and so they won’t fumble short on words every time they want to go somewher. They even suggested me to come back and teach them again! I look forward to going back!

~Lailinda Xu
U12 White

Posted: 1/3/11

For our leadership project we collected soccer equipment to send to the US Soccer Foundation’s Passback program, which sends new or used soccer supplies to organizations that need the equipment. We chose Passback because we wanted to do something that was challenging, fun, and had something to do with soccer; Passback had all of these things. After choosing what we where going to do, we had to design and hand out fliers to advertise the collection.  We then decorated bins and put them out at local locations such as: Sports Park, Donlon, Val Vista, and companies such as: Body Max, All Star Sports, and Soccer Pro. Thanks to Pleasanton’s generosity, we collected 440 pieces of equipment: 72 pairs of socks, 108 jerseys, 53 shorts, 46 balls, 63 pairs of cleats, 3 goals, 5 warm up tops, 4 warm up bottoms, 27 pairs of shin guards, 5 goalie tops, 8 goalie gloves, 3 soccer bags, 2 pennies, 1 cone, 37 practice shirts, and finally 2 pairs of indoor shoes. The local Passback donation group we selected was Club Manchester from Stockton which is young and growing soccer club.  It was amazing to see how much the city of Pleasanton donated, and it was great to see it go to a community that could use it. Soccer has given us a lot. It was nice to be able to give something back.

~ Elise Allari, Brianna Wolfe, and Katie Judson
U11 White 2010

Lauren and I turned in the toys for the Toys for Tots organization after a couple weeks of collecting toys from our neighbors, sports teams, friends, and family, etc. I got some toys from my soccer team at one of our occasional practices. I also donated some toys from my own old toy collection and finally my family bought some new toys as well. Lauren did a really good job of collecting toys from neighbors and her basketball team. It turned out to be a really big collection of toys, we dropped them off at the fire station and we got a couple pictures with one of the firemen who was really happy to take the toys from us (I’ll attach the pictures). They explained to us that they would hand over the toys to a church and the church would personally give the toys to the family in need; knowing this Lauren and I walked away feeling happy about our good deed and hope to try new things like such to help others in need again! 

Thanks,
-Monica Medor

Posted: 12/31/10

We participated in the Leadership Program and learned that we had to do a community service project.  We immediately thought of the Toys for Tots program because we wanted to help kids that were less fortunate than ourselves in our community.  To accomplish our goal to collect a significant number of toys, we needed the help of our friends, teammates and family.  The first thing we did was make up flyers and hand them out in our neighborhood.  The response was incredible and many people were willing to give toys.  We collected about 85-100 toys over a 2-3 week period.  We took all the toys down to the Fire Station near Stoneridge Mall on Sunday, Dec. 12th.  The firemen were amazed by the number of toys we brought! 

By organizing the toy drive, we learned how lucky and fortunate we are to have everything that we need.  It made us feel good to help less fortunate children and hopefully make their holiday a little bit better.  We really appreciate everyone who has supported and helped us with our successful toy drive!  Thank you Erika!

Sincerely,
Lisa DeFeo, Mildreth Gil and Amanda Jensen
U13 RAGE AC White
Posted: 12/15/10

For our leadership project, we decided to make wheelchair backpacks, activity bags, and travel packs. A wheelchair backpack is a backpack that goes on the back of a wheel chair for people to carry things in them. An activity bag has a book, arts and crafts, and games to play while the kids are in the hospital. A travel pack is for parents that need to stay overnight, and they don’t have any shampoo, conditioner, etc. For the wheelchair backpacks we sewed beautiful fabric together. The activity bags have mini books to read, creative activities like: puzzles, beads, foam balls, and t-shirts to design. The travel packs contain shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, and may have: toothbrush, mouthwash, toothpaste, and floss. We both put a bucket in our classrooms to get some materials for the activity bags. We did speeches in our classes talking to them about what we are going to do. We got all sorts of things from arts and crafts to conditioner. All of the classmates brought in at least one thing to donate to the cause. With these donations we are going to give them to the Oakland Children’s Hospital. One night we put all the activity bags together, and finished making the wheelchair backpacks. We are very glad that we could help these kids in need, and hopefully put a smile on their faces.    ~ Lauren Casby & Erin Schafer

My name is Sarah Broacha and for my service project I went to the St. Augustine church and helped sort food as well as put Thanksgiving baskets together for the people that cannot afford to buy a their own dinner. The first thing we had to do was donate food. Once many people donated some food, we all sorted the food that was given into piles on many rows of tables. After that, we all got some boxes and a sticker with: a name, if they were an adult or child, and how many people in the family. Then, we would take the baskets and fill them up with the food we think would be good for that family. I learned that giving food to others especially for a holiday, is fun to do and very helpful. I also learned that we all should help donate food to help people in need. From now on, since this experience was very fun, I will help organize and give food to people for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. Here are some pictures of my friend and I at the St. Augustine church.

~Sarah Broacha

Posted: 11/24/10