| Greetings! | The summer is a quiet time for Kick For Nick as many of our donors are on vacation, but we are gearing up for the fall soccer season and several ball collections that are being organized around the country.
The need for soccer balls in Iraq and Afghanistan continues as our soldiers meet with local children and their parents. The benefits of this positive interaction are well-described in the article below. In addition, Kick For Nick soccer balls are now also being distributed by our troops to the children of Africa. |
| Afghani Children Receive KFN Soccer Balls |
Afghani Children enjoy their KFN Soccer Balls |
Lt Jasmine Scott of of the US Navy is stationed in Afghanistan. She recently coordinated the distribution of KFN soccer balls to 93 children.
According to Lt Scott: "I work with detention facilities in Western Afghanistan. At the female facility in Herat city, there are 93 children (children of the females incarcerated there). These children can stay with their mothers only while they are under the age of 8. Then they have to go live with family or go to the orphanage. I hope this is what PFC Madaras wanted when he first got the idea to distribute soccer balls to kids. His memory lives on here in western Afghanistan and I am honored to be a part of that. Thank you." |
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From the Front Lines | |
--Following is an excerpt from an email from Jim Jeffery who is now on his 3rd tour to Iraq and Afghanistan as a civilian. Jim is working with our soldiers to help them in their mission, and with the U.S. Congress to help assess the effectiveness of our efforts.
"I am honored to be associated with you and Kick For Nick because I believe that what you and your family are doing is the way to promote peace in the Middle East...one mind at a time...one kid or family at a time....one soccer ball at a time...that is what it takes.
Those soccer balls, those gifts, those expressions of kindness ...plant seeds in the minds of the young boys and girls that receive them, it implants the message that Americans are compassionate and have love and respect for others... it's tangible and demonstrates that Americans care.
A kind word, a friendly smile from a soldier in the field does so much to ease the pain the Iraqis live with everyday, it shows America's other face, the face we like to believe in and it is the soldiers', like Nick that show that other face so clearly as they walk through the villages and towns and meet the people here that have witnessed so much suffering and pain and Bill, that is just one of the reasons I believe that our young soldiers are the very best ambassadors this country will ever have and our very best hope that one day the people here will remember at least some us and smile."
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| Ball Update |
31,328 at last count for balls distributed by our troops to Iraqi and Afghani children!
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| Ball Distribution in Iraq | 
From CPT Brett Sim: My unit conducted multiple soccer ball drops supported by your son's organization. I can not explain how happy these children were to recieve soccer balls. These pictures were actually taken at an Iraqi Summer School - the first of it's kind in Diyala Province since the Saddam Regime. The children love thier summer school and these balls are going to be used during recess and help support thier local league.
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