An Orphan and a Soccer ID Clinic

I ran an ID Clinic this past weekend for elite level, female high school soccer players in Toronto, Canada. 

With an overflow of parents in attendance there supporting their kids and learning what they needed to do to help them succeed, there was one player, in grade 12, who was different. She was recently orphaned with her Mom's passing.

Her Dad died when she was 1, and her mom died a few weeks ago suddenly after being sick for a while.

Despite all of this turmoil, this player played for a good friend of mine and was one of the top players on one of the top youth teams in Canada last year as a grade 11 student. While other kids have parents doing everything for them, this kid worked many hours at a job to be able to survive financially as she was getting little help from her family, all the while being a top level soccer player and a player with a 4.0 average in school.

This past year while she has been dealing with her Mom being sick and eventually passing away, and being in high school and not having a way to get to practice as she lives an hour from her team, with no one else around, she ended up having to stop playing soccer. While many of her teammates were receiving Division 1 scholarships, she was working trying to make enough money to survive and had no ride to training living far from her teammates in a small town.

Despite not having played soccer since May of this year, my friend who is her coach, begged her to come to the event that we put on in Toronto this past weekend. She did very well, and I talked to her after.

Obviously I started to cry just talking to her, as it blows my mind what this kid has been through. In an age that success in soccer/youth sports seems to boil down to whose parents have the most money and are the most involved, you just don't hear about kids like this one even getting this far.

But this is where sports is an incredible thing, with an incredible community, filled with people that see that its about something so much bigger than the game.

I asked this player, what I could I do to help her and to tell me a little bit more about her situation. After she told me a little bit (she spoke very quietly, this kid was a stoic rock who made me cry even more when she started to cry quietly talking about it) that she has no way to get to practice because she lives an hour away and also needs to work just to have any money because the 3 kids, of who she is the youngest, have no family around.

She told me how much it upsets her that her grades have also dropped into B range because of everything going on (I told her a B average is pretty incredible with everything she has going on)

I asked her if a car would help. She said yes it would change things for her dramatically.

So this is my goal with this campaign. 

First I want this kid to know that there are people that care, and despite everything she has been through that she is not alone, she has a community of people around her that care and want to support her being successful.

Secondly I want to raise enough money that can get her a car that will last her through university. 

And thirdly I want to raise enough money so that she can enjoy the rest of her grade 12 year and not to have to worry about working to have enough money to eat and that she can relax and enjoy a few carefree months without the stress of survival that has been on her for the last few years.

I want some good in this kid's life because she's been given way too much bad, at way too young of an age.

I really appreciate anything you would be able to give to this campaign. Every little bit, no matter how small, shows to her a community of people that care.

If anyone has any questions or wants more specifics on the players name/her team/her coach's name, please don't hesitate to email me as I want to protect her privacy: [email redacted] 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.