New Jersey teen Lucas Weissman sets example in youth leadership 13-year old Lucas Weissman from Milburn, New Jersey organized a PeacePassers fundraiser at the Sports Academy (www.the-sports-academy.com) on June 24th, 2009. The event was to raise awareness and collect soccer supplies for PeacePassers.  With this event Lucas took the opportunity to encourage his friends to participate in giving back to the game. Along with nearly 50 Millburn classmates and Ironbound Soccer Club teammates, they collected more than 25 soccer balls, 3 dozen pair of cleats, numerous soccer socks, shin guards, uniforms, goalie equipment, whistles, & cones. All will be shipped to the PeacePassers headquarters to then find a home with children around the world. The PeacePassers Team would like to thank Mark & Julie Weissman for helping to coordinate this memorable event!

PeacePassers would like to wish safe travels to volunteer Kari Cope (who also traveled to Haiti back in March 2009) as she is now crossing borders again this June 2009, taking 2 bags full of PeacePassers gear to her destination in Zambia. Kari and a longtime friend are going on a special trip with World Hope International to Zambia, which is in southeast Africa. (http://www.worldhope.org/countries/zambia.htm)The gear includes 2 Diadora bags filled with balls, boots, shorts, & full sets of jerseys that were donated from Madison Soccer Club (Susanne von der Linde in Madison New Jersey) & from the Minnesota Thunder Academy (Cara Sierks in Minneappolis, MN).

This is what we like to call “Peace Passin in the parking lot”. After an evening match with the Charlotte Women’s soccer league, Candace Cooper passes over two bags of gear to Kari Cope in preparation for her trip to Africa.

The PeacePassers team would like to thank the mission group from Matthews United Methodist Church (Matthews, NC) for volunteering to take 24 PeacePasser soccer balls to Bocachica, Colombia on their recent trip in May 17-24th , 2009.

Jeannette Coggins (Matthews UMC) tells PeacePassers “It was a very successful mission trip.  This was the third trip to this area for these students, so they were very excited to see the friends they have made there again.  Each and every team member was very focused on their purpose, and they all worked so hard together to get their projects completed.  They were able to build several latrines and a cistern for the island community.  They mixed cement by hand and poured a couple of floors for homes.  Of course, the highlight of the trip was distributing the soccer balls.  The guys there were so happy to receive them – and some were speechless when they realized that the balls were theirs to keep!”

Earl Coggins wrote us saying “there is an outdoor full length basketball court with half concrete walls around the court and that is where all the boys come to play soccer. Last year they were playing with a half flat ball.  What a joy they are going to have with these balls.”

We appreciate Earl Coggins and his daughter Beth Coggins for working with the PeacePassers to make this equipment donation a success. Also many thanks to Jeannette Coggins & Mr. Ben Icard (UMC) for coordinating several Spring shipments to Unitedvile, Belize in March 2009.
We look forward to continued connections with the Matthews UMC teams!

Peace Passers would like to congratulate the Peace Passers UK Futsal Team from Swindon, England on winning the men’s season one league. The team (pictured below) are wearing Peace Passers T-Shirts as their uniforms. The t-shirts can be purchased on our website by clicking here

(back row: L to R) Liam Sutton, Andy Hallet, Lee Jones
(front row: L to R) Lee Iddenden, Ben Kimber, Jamie Williams, John Ferry

About Futsal
Futsal is an indoor version of association football (soccer). The name "Futsal" simply combines the Spanish words for "Hall" - Sala, and "Football" - Futbol into Futsal. It is the format of small sided football that is recognised and supported by FIFA, UEFA and recently the FA, with world championships taking place for club and national teams. Futsal is played with a smaller regulation ball with 30% less bounce than normal. To learn more about Futsal UK check out their website at www.futsaluk.net

Well done lads!

CHARLOTTE, NC - The North Meck Soccer ‘96 Boys Red team honored their coach, Kevin Flanagan, with a donation to Peace Passers.  This donation will support another season of the boys 10-14 year old futsala league in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. To document the dedication, Peace Passers had a local artist paint the North Meck logo on the futsala court. The donation has been matched by Bank of America.