Getting their kicks: Dana Hall athletes team up with African AIDS prevention pro
From: townonline.com
By Michael Cox/ Townsman Staff
After grueling and intense fall sports seasons, it was probably the last thing they wanted to do on an unexpectedly snowy Friday afternoon. But there they were on a muddy athletic field, nearly 100 athletes strong, trying to help people they have never met.
That’s the way athletes from seven of Dana Hall’s fall sports teams literally kicked off the weekend, by participating in the Kick AIDS Team Challenge. The fundraising event seeks to raise funds for Grassroot Soccer, an international non-profit organization that trains Africa’s strongest role models, professional soccer players, to teach African children about HIV/AIDS prevention.
In total, players from Dana Hall’s varsity, junior varsity and junior varsity II soccer and field hockey teams and their varsity cross country teams raised $4,895 for the cause. The field hockey led the way with $1,333.
The visible manifestation of their efforts played out on the soccer field Friday as the student-athletes dribbled soccer and field hockey balls and ran across the field for 15 minutes, as promised to their sponsors.
Athletic director John Suba said the idea seemed like a perfect way to get athletes involved in community service, and the event’s timing was a great way to celebrate the fall seasons.
“I am surprised how seriously they’ve taken it,” said Suba, who served as one of the event coordinators. “I’d be surprised if we had less than 100 percent participation.”
While mobilizing the sports teams in this way is a new concept for Dana Hall, getting the students involved in worthy causes is a school tradition, noted the school’s community service coordinator, Graham Masiiwa. From diabetes and breast cancer walks, to Winter Wear and Coats for Kids projects and their City Year Serve-A-Thon and Appalachia trips, “the kids go after everything,” he said.
Just one look at the bulletin board outside the community service room and it’s easy to notice just how many undertakings the students are involved with. When they finish Grassroot Soccer, they will focus on collecting food items for 120 Thanksgiving boxes, which will be shipped to United Methodist Church on Columbus Avenue in Boston, notes Masiiwa.
Community service co-chairs juniors Maggie Schepcaro and Danielle Prague said when it come to school-wide volunteer efforts, they get their cues from the students. “We never have to twist people’s arms to get them to do things around here,” Schepcaro said.
Although not fall athletes, the two were there Friday rooting on their classmates, and the teams’ efforts clearly moved them. “There’s a lot of spirit out here,” Prague observed.
For Masiiwa, the Grassroots Soccer cause hits close to home. He grew up in Zimbabwe, where 33 percent of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. Masiiwa counts himself among the fortunate few lucky enough to go to private school and be insulated from much of the country’s social and economical ills.
Not so for Kirk Friedrich of Marblehead, one of the founders of Grassroot Soccer, who after graduating from American University went to Zimbabwe to play professional soccer. Instead of finding fame and fortune there, he watched teammates and friends as they died of AIDS.
“I realized I could play soccer in front of 50,000 people. It’s like football, basketball and baseball all rolled up into one. It was incredible playing there but also shocking to see how AIDS affected the entire country,” he said of the experience.
Intent on doing something when he returned home, he teamed up with fellow African soccer players Ethan Zohn of Lexington and University of New Mexico physician Thomas Clark, M.D. to form Grassroot Soccer. The thought was a simple one: to train African soccer players to teach African children about AIDS.
“It’s kind of like if you had Johnny Damon and Tom Brady going into Boston schools to talk about drug prevention,” explained Friedrich.
While he initially wondered what such a small group of people could do, the program has helped raise some $200,000 for intervention programs since its founding two years ago. They have also expanded their reach from Zimbabwe and Kenya to Botswana, Zambia and Ethiopia, he said.