Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a few days with our program partner in Los Angeles – Brotherhood Crusade. The Brotherhood Crusade was invited to provide a fun physical activity “station” for the 1,500 plus attendees at the League of United Latin American Citizen’s ¡Festival de Salud!
Hoping to lend a helping hand, I arrived early to the event to find George Weaver, Vice President of Special Programs at Brotherhood Crusade, already breaking a sweat while setting up multiple soccer tennis courts, with a huge smile on his face. Throughout the day, curious children and adults alike stopped by to play soccer tennis- it helped that the 10 additional Soccer for Success coaches at the event encouraged attendees of all ages to give it a shot (pun intended)!
Even with all of the excitement that the Brotherhood Crusade Soccer for Success coaches (ranging in age from 20-29) possessed, no one had more energy than George- and let’s just say he has a few years on the other coaches! Although soccer is not George’s strongest sport, his excitement and love for the game, and what he has seen it provide for the youth engaged in their Soccer for Success program, is incredibly infectious.
The Brotherhood Crusade serves over 1,500 youth and provides high quality afterschool sports-based youth development programming in some of the countries most underserved neighborhoods. While in LA I also had the opportunity to observe two of their Soccer for Success sites and see firsthand that through Soccer for Success, Brotherhood Crusade has been able to create a safe and fun environment for youth to be physically active and freely express themselves. It was truly an amazing experience to see such an impressive program partner at work!
