Dear Members,
As the holiday season approaches, and the time of giving, I wanted to share with you some information about an organization the MSDSL (our select league) is looking to support. Our goal is to collect as much loose change as we can from now until December 25th (Christmas). This is a competition amongst the clubs, but other associations may also get involved. We will have a large water jug stationed inside the High Velocity office for your donations. For more information on this organization and the competition, please read below. Thank you for your time,
The Canton Soccer Club
In the course of your time involved with the soccer communities of the MSYSA, it is always a great pleasure to the leadership of your soccer family when we are able to bring you an opportunity to put “character” and “sportsmanship” into action in an arena larger than the game of soccer. After all, if you unravel all the sport-specific lessons associated with “good sportsmanship”, you basically find that you are learning the age-old lesson to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s really all one and the same thing. So, with the holiday season approaching, we are excited to take some of our “good sportsmanship” and bring it to bear on “leveling the playing field” for others who are not as fortunate as we are.
OASIS, a non-profit organization founded by one of our own, a soccer coach here in Michigan for the past 16 years, has spearheaded a project to bring safe, clean water to the children of the world who are currently dying without it. That’s right: the water that we take so for granted is something that nearly 1 billion people in the world do not have access to. Current statistics say that every day nearly 4,000 children under the age of 5 die – that’s 4,000 each day – because they lack clean, safe water to drink. The lack of this basic necessity for life is so incomprehensible to us that we have decided we, as a soccer community, are going to do something about it! OASIS has issued a challenge called “The Cup of Life”, in which all the soccer clubs in the MSDSL (TNT, Michigan Jags, Canton Celtics, Bloomfield Force, Michigan Alliance, Waza, Michigan Tigers, and the Livonia City Soccer Club) will compete to collect the most loose change during the 40 days between Monday, November 14 and Christmas Day. Players and families are encouraged to collect their change (quite appropriately) in empty water bottles, and pass their collections on to club coaches who will bring the change to the club offices. At the office there will be 5 gallon water-cooler bottles where we will be collecting all the change. At the end of the 40 days, the totals will be tallied from each soccer club, and the winning club will be awarded a huge trophy, “The Cup of Life” to display in recognition of their accomplishment. Meanwhile, the money collected will be utilized, through cooperation with humanitarian aid organizations like World Vision, to pay for the digging of wells in places in Africa and India that will result in the saving of countless young lives. In order for this to have a world-changing impact, we need each and every one of you to get involved. These lives CAN be saved! Last weekend alone Americans spent over 90 million dollars at the movie theatre…we CAN change the world!!