PHS seniors promote Soccer Balls for Malawi project

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PHS seniors, from left, Erica Crawford, Janet Ortiz and Brandon Ruiz are joining forces for Soccer Balls for Malawi, a community service project raising donations for children in the African country. Organizer Selena Garcia is not pictured.

A group of Perry High School students is meeting this week with Perry Middle School classes in order to talk about their service project, Soccer Balls for Malawi, which sends needed items and supplies — and soccer balls —  to children and families in Malawi, Africa.

Some of the PHS students are members of the varsity soccer team and will show the middle schoolers “some cool soccer skills” and also lead brief scrimmages, with Soccer Balls for Malawi t-shirts as prizes, according to PHS senior Janet Ortiz, one of the organizers of the project.

“We’re going to show them some fun soccer moves and play some scrimmages and show them that this is the kind of fun we want to give the kids in Africa,” Ortiz said.

Another Soccer Balls for Malawi organizer, PHS senior Erica Crawford, said the project will collect donations until Tuesday, May 8.

“We really want to get exposure to the town and tell the community why we are conduting such a project as well as ask for any donations,” Crawford said. “I’m not on the soccer team, but I’m helping with the project because I love to do things for others like this.”

Crawford and Ortiz share the project’s duties with fellow PHS seniors Brandon Ruiz and Selena Garcia. The Soccer Balls for Malawi project gives the students an opportunity to bank community-service hours. Students need to perform 90 hours of community service over the course of their high school careers in order to qualify for a diploma with honors.

“This is a way our kids can get their community service in for the school,” said Ortiz, a member of the National Honor Society.

Ortiz and Crawford are also co-presidents of the Interact Club, which “brings together young people ages 12 to 18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self,” according to the Interact Club website.

The Interact Club — interact stands for international action — is sponsored by the Perry Rotary Club and the Rotary Club International and organizes at least two projects every year, one that helps the local school or community and one that promotes international understanding.

Crawford said they want to let “everyone else in the community know what we’re doing and inspire them when they see that we’re really young and making a huge project like this, and they can do it, too.”

Along with a collection box for donations in the PHS library, where non-perishable foods and personal-care items — and soccer balls — can be received, the group will also be extending their outreach to local businesses until the May 8 deadline.

The students will present their project Thursday, April 26 in the Iowa SkillsUSA competition at the DMACC campus in Ankeny.

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