More than 1,000 soccer jerseys, shorts and socks will soon be winging their way to soccer-loving, but impoverished, nations, courtesy of the Richmond Girls Soccer Association (RGSA).
Former RGSA player-turned referee Mackenzie Seaborn, her mom and RGSA administrator, Kim, and local soccer dad and coach Wayne Masing all played their respective parts in soliciting, sorting and gathering the veritable mountain of equipment.
As well as the soccer apparel – most of which is brand new or barely used – more than 100 soccer balls and some refereeing equipment is also being donated.
Through Canadian-based charity Sportaid International, a portion of the clothing and equipment will be heading to Paraguay this week, with the remainder going to other Central America countries later this year, thanks to an assist from Richmond-based non-profit Fundamentals for Change (FFC).
“My mom, who’s the administrator at RGS, was getting ready for the spring season and noticed there was a lot of outdated, but unworn, jerseys and she didn’t really want to throw them out,” said Mackenzie, 17, a Grade 12 student at Hugh Boyd secondary.
“We both thought that people in less fortunate circumstances might be able to use them. So, we sorted out all these jerseys, shorts, socks, refereeing equipment and soccer balls.
“And we advertised for a clothing drive to see if anyone else was out there that wanted to donate similar items.”
After taking over the clothing and equipment drive, Mackenzie — who doesn’t play soccer any more due to her dancing commitments — was approached by Sportaid and then Jeff Kuzik at FFC.
“We wanted to really support the love of soccer in places around the world that maybe don’t have the same resources as we do or the access to all the equipment,” added Mackenzie.
FFC was collecting some of the equipment from Mackenzie to donate to Grade 9 Magee secondary student Sam Guo, 14, who, along with his family, is taking the gear to Central America later this year.
