Cancun, Mexico
After the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, I returned to Mexico. This time we partnered with Fundación Ciudad de la Alegria, which is a huge organization providing aid to more than 45,000 families per year. There was some built-up excitement and anticipation ahead of this event for me, as I had already exchanged several phone calls with the organization’s Executive Director Katty Rosado. After our conversations, I was confident that our organizations would be a perfect fit for each other.
After a few days of rest and clinic prep, the morning of our first program finally arrived. Slowly, the kids began to trickle in, accompanied by a parent or guardian. After registering with City of Joy staff members, they quickly retreated to any available shade as it was already scorching hot from the Mexican sun.
The sun was relentless as we tried to set up drills in shaded areas, which were quickly filled in by sunlight. The kids, though, were amazing: energetic, respectful and attentive. Unlike myself, they were unamused and seemingly, unaffected, by the heat.
We practiced some fun drills during this first session with the younger kids. After our hour together, the young participants received a mini-ball and a t-shirt while the older kids received a new size 5 ball.
The next group of older kids were from the Don Bosco Children’s Center. This program consisted of some higher level technique drills and the older kids took on leadership roles to assist the younger group members.
After the session, we handed out new soccer balls and bookmarks saying “Sueño Grande, Estudio Duro” or “Dream Big, Study Hard”. The bookmarks would be put to good use, as the message is incredibly important for the kids. Some struggle in the classroom with behavioral issues and other learning impediments.
My final hour was filled with young kids and most were around 5-years-old. While I was running on empty, the kids were running on full. We ran through a quick drill session and moved on to a scrimmage, as many of them wanted to play the beautiful game.
While the kids scrimmaged, I spoke with some of the parents and guardians on the sidelines, who were supporting from any spot of shade they could find. While chatting, I took a quick break in some shade behind a street sign.
I laid there in the grass and joked to a guardian that there were no rules, no ref, nothing, as 20 kids clumped together, fighting for the same ball.
After this unconventional scrimmage, each kid received a new ball and t-shirt. While I attend these programs intending to give, I never expect to receive. La Fundación gave me a beautiful heart made from hand-woven sticks. They also provided me a small meal and some snacks, as I was completely exhausted from the heat.
As I decompressed, I spoke with Katty about some of our struggles as an organization this year with beneficiaries and benefactors. We had more similarities than differences. 80% of their donors were gone because of COVID-19 and on the ATW side, our donors are down 75%.
Despite that, she continually expressed her gratitude that we were able to collaborate on a small event for the kids. “They all told me they were super happy and emotional that they had this opportunity,” she shared. I thanked her for bringing it to life because of course our work only exists because of foundations like Ciudad de la Alegria and people like Katty.
