Cancún, Mexico
This was my second experience collaborating with Fundación Ciudad de la Alegría, but this time my travels took me to La Zona Maya to a pueblito called San Pedro. It is close to Quintana Roo, where Cancún is located, and Yucatán, the province that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico.
The executive director of la fundación, Katty, was in San Pedro, helping provide access to education and other resources to a community in need, which was only amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. When she posted a picture on social media six weeks ago supervising students during their classes,I immediately messaged her, asking if I could help. She quickly responded saying I was always welcome in Cancún any time.
Just a week after running our first set of programs in Monterrey, I was headed back to Mexico. Katty typically visits the community for classes on Saturday mornings, so I strategically planned my trip to allow plenty of time to prepare for a weekend session.
I arrived on a Wednesday and messaged Katty. She shared how excited the kids were for the weekend, and I was too! We planned for two, hour-long sessions with about 25 participants each. Coincidentally, the Friday before the session was El Día del Niño in Mexico! What a pleasant surprise and coincidence that was. I couldn’t have scripted that any better had I tried! No wonder the kids were excited! This was their day!
I was spoiled in our past few sessions because they were all late in the afternoon to avoid heavy heat. I would just roll out of bed and go to my program with plenty of rest. This time was a bit different. The wake-up call was early in the morning and they were picking me up at 7:30 a.m.
By some grace I managed to fall asleep around 10 p.m. to get up at 6 a.m. to prepare for the program. Right at 7:30, a staff member from the foundation arrived at my house to pick me up.
“We’ll go to the foundation where you can meet with Katty and some other volunteers so we can go to San Pedro,” he said.
“Okay amigo vamos!” I replied.
As soon as we arrived at the foundation, I was happy to return to a familiar place- during our first collaboration with Fundación Ciudad de Alegría, we ran all three of our programs on the grass field located within the foundation’s walls. I reconnected with a past staff member from back in December and met a couple students who would be volunteering their time that day. One was from Barcelona, Spain! (Shoutout to our head of design, Nuria!)
Finally, Katty arrived and welcomed me with open arms, as we shared an embrace, albeit a masked one. We transferred bags and equipment between two cars that would be traveling to the community, so I could pump up a few balls while en route. It was tough because I had about 50 to prepare, but I hadn’t seen Katty in 5 months and we had so much to catch up on! Unfortunately, conversation can hardly flow easily when you have the rumbling of an electric pump ringing throughout the entire car. Luckily, we had an hour so I was able to inflate about 30 – while still enjoying a spirited conversation with Katty and others in the vehicle.
Finally, we were getting close to the school where the kids usually meet. Just a block from that, there was a multipurpose court, which we would be using. Fortunately, there was a techo– a small roof or covering- to protect us from the ruthless sun rays. We prepared a few more soccer balls while the kids slowly made their way from their nearby homes to the school. Finally, it was time to start!
We had about 25 participants at the beginning, which shortly grew to 35. Turns out, the kids were so excited to play soccer that the two sessions merged quickly into one. I was stoked because this meant we had nearly 2 and a half hours to play together!
We jumped into an active listening drill, which admittedly the kids struggled with at first. I would yell pie, or feet, and they would grab the ball. Mano, or hand, again, they would grab the ball. Finally after some brief demonstrations, we were back on track.
We transitioned into some new moves and ball control, which the kids later told me excitedly was something new they had learned in the program – nuevas tecnicas.
At some point, two older boys moved to the back of their line and became a bit rowdy. We said to them, not sternly, but with a little bit of authority, “It’s okay if you don’t want to pay attention or participate, you can just go back to classes and studying.” They quickly snapped back into it and ran to the front, “No, we want to play!”
During the relay race portion of our session one younger boy was struggling a bit. He had some difficulty running, and his gait naturally leaned left. For the sake of accessibility, I offered him a few shortcuts to make things easier, but he pushed through, determined to do everything the same way as everyone else. Zigging and zagging as they were. Dribbling as they were. Knocking it all out like a pro.
We wrapped up that portion and moved to Mano o Cabeza – we had near 35 kids, so the circle was much bigger than usual. The kids caught on quick, with mixed cheers and laughter whenever someone succeeded or failed. We were doing 5 winners each game, but as always, we’d go until a final winner just to see things through to the end. We continued this another round until we had a set of 10 winners, who would all receive a pulsera and have their pick of the litter when it came to our prizes.
After this, I chose four captains to lead us through some scrimmages. We had goals during this program, which is always a treat, so we might as well use them!
Finally, we had four teams and we played street rules – first to one goal, winner stays. One team was dominating, which made it all the sweeter when they were beaten by another.
Eventually, the two teams composed mainly of girls approached me to ask if we could play girls vs. girls and boys vs. boys. We broke into two five minute scrimmages like this, followed by something special – adults vs kids.
We proudly took that victory 1-0, but it sure was close! There were plenty of times it easily could’ve gone their way had it not been for some late heroics from our keeper and our defense.
Finally, we all gathered to distribute prizes. Katty and the foundation had brought along beautifully-wrapped packages of chocolates for each kid to celebrate and commemorate Día del Niño – a nice addition to their new soccer balls.
We started with the first ten winners, who all grabbed their choice of ball followed by a high five and a smile. Once everyone had received one, the kids fell into line and walked orderly back towards their school – to meet with their parents.
As I passed by parents and kids, they all offered a smile.
“¡Hasta pronto!” said the kids. “¡Muchas gracias!” said the parents.
I had an opportunity to speak with the woman in charge of gathering and supervising the kids and offered my sincere gratitude. “Thank you for this experience… I had a great time and I hope the kids did too!”
“Of course,” she said. “They were so happy. They’re always happy to play football.”
Katty stopped us as we were making our way to the car and gestured towards this same woman, “She wanted us to join her for lunch at her casa, if you guys would like” “Of course! I’m always hungry, especially after three hours of soccer,” I joked.
She cooked us a Yucatán staple – tacos de cochinita, which is a type of pork, I think. They were delicious – even more so because they were made with love and received with gratitude.
Her kids, who had participated and helped throughout the program, were excitedly bouncing their new soccer balls around the house while we enjoyed our tacos. “¿Quieres más?” she asked, making sure our stomachs were as happy and full as our faces were, following a very special day and experience.
Once our plates were clean and stacked, we made our way to the cars and stopped to thank her one last time. “You have a beautiful home,” I added before thanking her again for the delicious lunch.
As we drove home, I had the opportunity to talk with Katty some more – this time uninterrupted by the inflating of soccer balls. Last December, we spoke about our struggles with covid, losing a lot of our financial sponsors and other supporters. They were then down 80 percent from years’ past and we were down about 75 percent. She said with hope that things were getting better. I shared our exciting news about The Belichick Foundation, which I had received just after our first collaboration.
She added a bit more context about the San Pedro community – “Can you imagine… These kids have gone nearly one year without school because of COVID? We struggle here in the city center even when we have access to virtual learning and Google classroom and all that. There, they don’t even have computers, internet, remote learning simply is not possible,” she told me.
That is why she started visiting the community on Saturdays, so that the kids could at least have one opportunity weekly to learn and study. I think there are about six classrooms and three teachers for the entire community.
I always enjoyed talking with Katty because she spoke with such passion and excitement. “Next time you want to come here, there’s another community in Mérida, maybe 3-4 hours away where you can run a program. I’ll drive you there myself and set it up, don’t worry, you just say when!” She is literally the best and I will certainly take her up on that offer.
We spoke a bit about our plans and other things and then she asked, “What is the exact mission of Around the Worlds? Why soccer balls? Why soccer?”
We just want to give kids access to the game of soccer, and we do so through small programs and pseudo-camps where kids have the opportunity to play, but also learn values that almost always translate off the pitch as well.
“It’s the perfect vehicle isn’t it? she asked.
“Yes… these kids learn teamwork, respect, leadership, community ownership – all through that one ball,” I added.
“Sometimes, for the kids it really is just an opportunity to play, and nothing more than that. And that’s completely okay! Because kids deserve that too… just a chance to play. But oftentimes, it’s far greater than that… and when it is? Well that is a beautiful thing,” I said.
“We always appreciate our volunteers at the foundation because I know that our work does not exist without them,” she said, as we pulled into the foundation.
With a hug and smile, she said “I’ll see you soon, Stephen, please take care until then. “Gracias por todo, Katty, stay safe always!” I said hopping in the car to take me back to my house.
My goal has always centered around the kids. Playing, learning and dreaming together. For them, it is an opportunity to experience something I took for granted as a child. For me, it is an opportunity to learn from them and grow myself.
