Project giving away shirt off your back
By Jeff Gallatin
Bay Village
Published Feb. 14, 2007

City officials and citizens hope to score big on a new project to provide assistance to needy children in Latin American countries.

Instead of collecting food, supplies or other items commonly associated with projects to send to third-world countries, the Bay Village groups will be collecting soccer jerseys and other sports shirts to send and distribute among youngsters in Latin America this year.

Bay Village Community Services Director Debbie Bock said the idea made sense when it was presented to her recently.

“Sports are a huge thing for the kids down there and a big part of their society,” said Bock, who admits to being a big fan herself of sports at her collegiate alma mater, the University of Akron, as well as area scholastic sports.

“Children down there are like the ones up here; they will follow a local sports team or player closely and want to see or look like them,” Bock said. “They’ll want a jersey or a shirt which has a number or at least the same color as their local favorites.”

Because of economic conditions in their countries, it’s frequently hard and sometimes impossible for families or communities to provide jerseys or sport shirts for the children, Bock said.

“That’s where we think getting the jerseys and sport shirts together up here will help,” Bock said. “We’re planning to collect them at area soccer games and practices and then we’ll send them to the Latin American countries where they can distribute them to the youngsters.”

Bock said with the Bay area’s avid interest in soccer because of the long-term success of city youth and scholastic teams, it looks like a recipe for success. She said the group will take shirts and jerseys from other sports.

“We’re asking people to bring old jerseys and sports shirts to the collection areas we set up and put them in there,” she said. “If nothing else, we can take the jerseys from other sports and put them with soccer jerseys and shirts of the same color.”

Area soccer moms and fans got the ball rolling on the project, Bock said, citing the idea by Julie Holmes.

“She got all of this moving by having the idea and wanting to do something for the youngsters,” Bock said.

Other key players in the project are the mother-daughter team of Karen and Katie Spies, Bock said.

“They’re heavily involved in area soccer programs and got involved when they heard about it,” Bock said.

Karen Spies said it was just natural for her and her teenage daughter to take part.

“We’ve always been involved in the area programs,” she said. “She’s played and been a referee in matches for years. And I’ve always tried to help out as a mother with the different teams and groups she’s been involved in.”

Karen said the duo has also worked with Julie before.

“We know each other well and enjoy being around each other,” Spies said.

She said the group is firming up dates and collection points but anticipates the work getting underway when soccer practices start in March.

“We hope to get a lot of people involved because it’s a pretty popular sport all over,” she said. “We’re not limiting this to just people from Bay. Anybody can bring them in for collection.”