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Our names are Michaela Riter, Peyton Raun, Kate Reedy, Ashley Atkinson, and Hannah Deljkic. We are from the U11 Orange Team and we participated in Rage Leadership. For our community service project, we chose to make toys and treats to put under the Valley Humane Society Christmas tree. We did this for the dogs and cats, which need a home for this holiday season. Prior to the visit to the shelter we got together at Ashley’s house and began to make toys for the animals in need of a home for the holidays. The toys were made out of soft braided fabrics. We also made puffballs for the cats. We each went home and tested them on our own pets. Then we made homemade treats in holiday shapes. We met Shoshanna Reed at the Valley Humane Society and brought the goodies in on Monday the twenty sixth. She gave us a tour of the shelter while we gave attention to the dogs and cats wanting to be adopted for the holidays. We visited Kitty Corner and Doggy Drive where the animals were. We put most of the toys under the tree and gave one to each lonely animal. After seeing the animals play with the toys and have fun, we felt the joy of doing something good for the community. This leadership program has prompted us to help with more things in the community. We want to say thank you to Shoshanna Reed and Erika Carlson for teaching us all these great and useful leadership skills. And don’t forget everyone needs a home for the holidays so come and adopt, and you will feel as good as we did. 

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12/17/12

Hi, our names are Caroline Clark, Emily Hickey, Emily Meier, Jessica Schmidt, and Allison Harizal. We are from the U14 White Rage soccer team, and we are in the Rage leadership program. For our community service project, we chose to raise money and donate blankets to the Benham Blanket Drive, organized by Natasha Benham-Erdi, who was sending blankets to families in Port Jefferson, New York, a little town that was greatly impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We had a bake sale at the Sports Park to raise as much money as possible to buy blankets, and we ended up raising $170. We used that money to go to Target and buy ten big blankets. Then the next day we brought the blankets to the drop-off site, The Bracelet Bar downtown. During this process, we met many people who were very thankful for what we were doing, including a man at the bake sale, our cashier at Target, her manager, one of the women who was collecting the blankets, and Natasha Benham herself, although we didn’t get to meet her (she sent an email). We were very glad to help the families in New York, and it made us want to do something like this again. Thank you for all the great leadership skills you have taught us!

Posted: 12-7-12

Provide Blankets and Treats to Animals in a Local Shelter.

Besides our love of soccer, our love of animals was another thing we all had in common too! We decided to get blankets and treats for animals in a local shelter!

We didn’t want to just buy these items; that would be too easy, so we decided to hand make the blankets and bake treats ourselves! The 5 of us from our U12 White team brainstormed about how to get this done. Turned out there were 5 different things to do to get our project completed successfully! We worked on the project step by step with all of us participating in each step as a group. Click Here to read story.

Posted:12/15/12

Hi, our names are Sadie Grozier and Ashley Morton. We play for Pleasanton RAGE U13 Orange. This year we were involved in their leadership program. For our community project, we decided to collect items for www.pleasantonmilitaryfamilies.org. This group collects donations to prepare holiday packages to be delivered to troops that are overseas. In order to make our project a success, we needed to ask for donations. We decided to ask our teammates, friends, family, and churches for help. The items we collected were simple, everyday items that we take for granted like Chapstick, gum, snacks, and toothpaste. We also received cash donations that allowed us to purchase socks, T Shirts, and other items. We were able to collect so many items. In all, we collected about 7 Trader Joe’s bags and 3 large boxes full of donations. Our mentor, Tracey Buescher, was very happy. She is one of the Co-Chairs of Pleasanton Military Families. We were very lucky to have her help through all of this. Pleasanton Military Families is a great organization to donate to if you want to show your appreciation for our military personnel.

Posted: 1/12/12

For our leadership project, we first started with a meeting at the SPCA. We decided as a group to do the giving tree. The giving tree is where people select ornaments from the tree that has items that they need for the animals. We started with decorating ornaments, then set up the tree and hung up the ornaments. Every week somebody from our group would come by and check on the tree and put the donations in the donation room. This project continued through New Years. We are excited to see that there were a lot of donations for the animals. We collected a wide variety of items for the SPCA.  Some of them include dog and cat food, a large box of leashes, dog kongs (chew toys), cat scratcher towers, a large dog bed, chew bones and pet snacks, dog and cat collars, and money donations.  At the end we collected all of the addresses of people who donated and hand wrote thank you notes to them. We are happy that we could help the SPCA, take a part in saving animals lives.

Quinn Lombardi, Holly Judson, Delaney Soble, Kiera Hegarty, Maddy Mole

SLIDESHOW

Posted: 1/7/12

For my leadership project, through my soccer club, Rage, my four teammates and I decided to do the giving tree. This project was a program that the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) did every year around the holidays. Our job was to set up a fake Christmas tree, and decorate it with tons of paper ornaments saying what they needed for the animals.

 At first, I was thinking that the project would be a lot of work, but then I realized that if I tried my best, the animals living there would get a benefit from it. After spending hours making over 60 ornaments, I was extremely tired. With all of the help from my mom and my younger sister, things were much easier. Once this task was finished, my group and I could go to the SPCA and put up the tree, decorate it and put baskets under it. On a hot Wednesday after practice, we all arrived at the SPCA. An employee there, Ellen, told us to get the tree, decorate it and then she would lead us to a closet full of baskets. It was so cool! When we finished all of our tasks, we could go see the homeless dogs and cats. It made me really depressed seeing all of them sitting there with nothing to play with. A second after seeing the cute pets I remembered that one of the items on the wish list was toys. Knowing that the animals would receive a toy for the holidays really cheered me up! With our parents emailing nonstop everything was up to date. They coordinated this process, which was, each girl would go one week and take all of the items to the donation room. When I went, I almost fainted! There were tons of donations under the tree. Wow, this project was awesome!

 I feel that this project changed my life because it was very educational and because I can carry the fact with me everywhere that I changed some animal’s lives! Now in the future I know about all of the programs the SPCA has to help the animals. I learned, on top of all of the interesting facts about the SPCA, that helping is so fun. Even though you have to put a lot of time and work into the activity you are doing, you can change someone’s life in a very special way. 

Posted: 1/5/12

In October 2011, one of our fellow soccer players from Tri-Valley Force was diagnosed with bone cancer. She had been in a great deal of pain and had seen a Physical Therapist for some time before the therapist recommended her to see a doctor. It was then she discovered the bone disease.

Breezy has been very sick and her medical bills are very high. So, after my team had heard about Breezy’s game at Amador High School, my coach, mom, and I found it the perfect opportunity to raise money for Breezy. With the help of my mom we contacted many people to tell them about Breezy’s fundraiser. I hand made the poster and talked to people to encourage them to donate. In the end we raised $643.00! We have sent the money to Breezy’s family and we really hope it helps.

Thank you for teaching us about leadership,

Karin L. McCarty

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