FUNDaFIELD Sponsors Soccer Tournament in South Africa

A group of FUNDaFIELD team members traveled to Africa on June 17th, 2008 to hold a, first ever, soccer tournament on the very fields you have helped us build. Each team member is payed for his own trip, with no donations being used to finance the trips!

Garrett Weiss

Kyle Weiss

Justin Walz

Isaac Liang

Kelsey Gunderson

Jake Becker

Chris Gailey

Max Mendes

Becca Haberl

Britney Haberl

Joining them was Lisa Weiss, Linda Hansen, Kathy Gailey, Cathy and Randy Haberl.

As you can imagine we needed a lot of help to make this trip and tournament a reality. We want to thank a few of you...

STUDENT MOVEMENT FOR REAL CHANGE

When we started FUNDaFIELD we sent tons of letters looking for a school to build a field at. Most went unanswered or just didn’t work. Lucky for us we contacted Saul Garlick who was looking to bring sports to the area, part of his teachings on HIV/AIDS. Saul has been an unbelievable supporter and mentor, always there to give FUNDaFIELD valuable advice and share his knowledge and huge network of resources. He made it happen!

THE BUFFELSHOEK TRUST

Imagine if all the money that we have earned was sent to Africa and never seen again. It was a concern we had when we started. Lucky for us, The Buffelshoek Trust has provided us with proposals for scoreboards, stands, goals, and has then been the facilitator on the job. Thank you, we don’t know how it would have happened if you had not been there.

HALLOCK FAMILY FOUNDATION

The Hallock family finished funding the second field for us and then Mrs. Hallock added even more to her donation. She asked that we use it to buy some of the things that we need to make our job even easier. We are so appreciative of her thoughtfulness. The projector we now own allows us to present to even more people and tell them about FUNDaFIELD. Thank you Hallock Family Foundation!

LITTLEFEET

Thank you Trevor Slavick, we promise to send you pictures of the happy kids holding the soccer balls you donated, 44 balls in all will bring countless hours of enjoyment for the children (and adults) of these villages!

EUROSPORT PASSBACK PROGRAM

Steven Fear, Eurosport Passback Director is our hero. In an amazingly short amount of time, Mr. Fear had packaged and shipped to the village, 240 Uniforms for the players, 10 referee jerseys and flags, 15 goal keeper jerseys, 101 pairs of cleats/shidguards and even more. Thank you from the kids and from FUNDaFIELD.

COCA-COLA

Thank You Coca-Cola for providing music, tents and beverages at the Mdluli High School World Games! We appreciate your making the 6 hour drive to the villages!

ALPINE AWARDS

Thank you Greg Vella for the incredible amount of time you have given FUNDaFIELD. We would not have t-shirts, medals and so much more had you not stepped up and supported us.

GATORADE

Thank you Tom Eagan of GMR Marketing for providing Gatorade for the brand new fields!

XL TRAVEL

Ciaran McArdle planned our trip to South Africa with attention to detail that we can only thank him for!

COACHES ACROSS CONTINENTS

Nick Gates, our tour guide while in Africa and founder of the most amazing organization, Coaches Across Continents. Your work providing education through soccer, all over the world, is an inspiration to all of us at FUNDaFIELD, we appreciate your guidance!

DJUMA GAME RESERVE

Thank you Djuma and your wonderful staff for our wonderful safari adventure as well as for helping with all of our shipping accommodations for the the tournament.

DANVILLE BIKE

Thank you Joe Gutierrez for donating the cruiser bike that was graffiti painted to be the coolest raffle prize ever. We appreciate your support!

The Mdluli HIgh School World Games

The Mdluli High School World Games was the Hluvukani region’s first ever soccer tournament. Over 250 High School students participated in full field games: 8 teams of boys, and 8 of girls. Each team was named after a country...MDLULI HIGH SCHOOL WORLD GAMES!

FUNDaFIELD team members all played on a different South African team, as well as ref the games. The T-Shirts above are the official tournament t-shirts, as each player received one. On top of this, the winning teams each receive medals and Goorin Brothers Hats.

The FUNDaFIELD Team arrived in Cape Town, South Africa on June 19th, 2008. The two plus week trip was packed with adventure from the moment we arrived in Capetown until we departed from Joburg! Read about moments that were special to our FUNDaFIELD team members:

I have been asked over and over what the highlight of the trip was and there are really too many to enable me to choose just one.

The Mdluli High School World Games, our tournament, was a huge success with over 1,200 people attending on the final day. Local radio station SABC Sport broadcast the final games and SuperSport (like ESPN here) was there for the championship games.
Coke arrived on the first day of the tournament with a big rig pulling a generator with power. They opened up the
side and there was a huge stage with a sound system. They supplied the tournament with cold drinks and music both days! They also had raffles for Coke merchandise.
Seeing over 240 kids show up to pick up their uniform, to watch their faces as they put on their cleats, to feel their pride as they took a team picture and as they stepped onto the field for their game, was the greatest feeling ever.
There were so many little kids running around, caught up in the excitement of the tournament. They all wanted us to take their picture. Any time they saw a camera, they would pose and then a few more would show up and then a few more, all with huge smiles!
Working with Play Soccer Africa, Coaches Across Continents and UNICEF to teach kids about HIV/Aids, using soccer in Soweta.

Prior to landing, we all had similar ideas of what we were going to see: hundreds of kids running up to us, everyone living in straw huts and families having barely enough food to survive on. And while many of our assumptions were correct, we could not possibly anticipate the smiles and the warmth of the people in the communities. We were followed around like celebrities, everyone coming up to say hello, to ask us to take their picture, to give us a hand shake, to welcome us to their community. These were the “you had to be there to believe it” things that we will never forget. The FUNDaFIELD Team was there for all of these experiences together. We shared smiles and we shared sadness but we all came back with the realization that we had made a difference while we were there and that we have the opportunity to make a huge impact in the future. Thank you as always for your support.

-Garrett Weiss

Co-Founder FUNDaFIELD

South Africa 2008