Callaway Soccer Hurricane Relief

Callaway, FL is located on the Florida Gulf Coast just east of Panama City.   It is a small military town, with may of its residents working at nearby Tyndall Air Force Base.  On October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael passed directly over Callaway as a strong Category 4 hurricane.  Most of Callaway's  residents were directly and dramatically impacted by the effects of this powerful storm.

While fundraising for my high school soccer team in Jacksonville, Fl this week, the idea came to me that there are probably soccer programs in the panhandle that needed the money so much more than our school.  I found Callaway Youth Soccer on Facebook, and with the help of my parents, reached out to them to ask how their facilities did in the storm.  As the photos below show, it was not good.  The fields were flooded and covered in debris, the goals are all damaged or missing, and the main equipment locker was smashed by a fallen tree.

By Jacksonville standards, Callaway Youth Soccer is a small club with about 450 children from ages 3-18 participating.  They are in desperate need of money to rebuild their facilities and get up and running again.  The league is run entirely by volunteers whose real jobs are in law enforcement and on the air force base.  As you can imagine, between seeing to the needs of their own families as well as the community as a whole, there hasn't been much time for them to think about soccer yet.  It is my hope that my friends and family as well as the entire Northeast Florida soccer community can come together and provide Callaway with the resources they need to get their children back on the fields as soon as possible.  

Please give what you can and if you cannot give financially, consider sharing this story with your friends, coaches, and club directors.   I set the goal at $5,000, but I have a feeling they will need a lot more than that to repair the damage.  Let's smash that goal and show the world why they really call soccer "the beautiful game!"