Back in 2009 high school student Jake Budlow (Chatham, NJ) collected 190 pairs of cleats for Peace Passers and shipped them to Playforhope.org supporting soccer in Rwanda (http://peacepassers.org/high-school-student-collects-190-pairs-of-boots-for-peacepassers). This recent picture of Jake’s 2011 collection shows he is growing up into an inspirational young man and reaching new heights with his community service efforts.

Once again Jake created and executed a successful collection drive for Peace Passers.  Jake’s dad Bob Budlow explained “After Peace Passers put us in touch with Cassie Childers’s Tibet project (http://tibetsoccer.bbnow.org/) Jake learned that Tibetan refugees living in India were starting a soccer program and had nothing in terms of equipment. Recognizing that cleats were only one part of the necessary equipment Jake began to collect cleats, shin guards, uniforms, goalie gloves and jerseys. He reached out to the community and they responded in kind.  Over the course of six months he collected 160 pairs of cleats, 60 pairs of shin guards, 20 uniforms, goalie shirts, goalie gloves and even a few soccer bags.”

Jake and his parents personally delivered the donations to Cassie Childers at her home in the Jersey Shore.  She offered to be the messenger of Jake’s good tidings to the Tibetan refugees & will also document the project on her blog: http://forbiddendreamtibet.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-time-is-different.html

When Jake was asked for a quote to encompass how he felt about doing this drive he said “It is so rewarding and fun for me to know that what I’m doing here in my community can have such a positive impact to children halfway around the world.  The last time I ran a cleat drive was for children in Rwanda.  This time it was for children in Dharamsala, India — the homeland of the Dalai Lama.  Can you ask for anything more interesting than that?” Jake, we couldn’t agree more!