Soccer game raises fund donations for Special Olympics

MOSES LAKE - Recipe for a fun fundraiser:

Guys from the Moses Lake High School football team, and some of their friends.

The girls soccer team, and some of their friends.

A meeting on the soccer pitch at high noon Saturday at Lions Field.

Admission will be by donation, and all proceeds will go to Special Olympics, which will use the money to support the Special Olympics program in Moses Lake.

"We're going to have a boys-versus-girls soccer game," said London Cleverly, who organized the game as half her senior project.

The second half is the soccer clinic for disabled youths scheduled for 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. today, Wednesday and Friday in the gym at Lakeview Terrace Elementary School, 780 South Clover Dr. The participants will demonstrate what they have learned during halftime of Saturday's soccer game.

The clinic is free and is open to anyone with a disability who wants to learn about soccer, she said. Girls from the high school soccer team will be doing some of the coaching.

Cleverly said she wants to teach the participants some of the basics of soccer, how to handle the ball and soccer positions. Her ultimate goal is to give the disabled kids a chance to learn about and play soccer, she said, because there really isn't anywhere for them to play locally.

She wants kids to play soccer and not feel like any disability they may have is holding them back, she said.

London's aunt, Michele Redford, was born with Downs syndrome, she said, and she's known people with disabilities at church. She wanted to do something for disabled kids that isn't part of their normal routine, and show the soccer game audience that the children have skills they might not have a chance to show otherwise, she said.

The fundraising soccer game grew out of a boys versus girls Facebook rumble a couple of years ago. The football players founded TWO (Team White-Out) and "they were just posting it all over Facebook," London said. Not to be outdone the soccer girls founded TPO (Team Pink Out), and the "boys were just freaking out," she said.

That led to a challenge, and a boys versus girls soccer game, just for fun, with parents, players and their friends invited. "We all had a good time. The girls ended up winning," Cleverly said.

Needing a senior project, being an experienced soccer player and remembering that game, London thought another game might be a good way to raise some money for a worthy cause, she said. The game will be played on her aunt Michele's birthday, said London's mom Kim.

The senior project is required, and part of the requirement is to learn something from the experience. London said she's learned a few things. "You have to enjoy what you're doing. And I've learned I enjoy this," she said.

"I have learned to have patience and to have good time management. And to listen to my mom more."