ONE STRONG KICK Indeed!

Last Saturday, April 19, over 150 community members and Darfur United supporters gathered at John and Cynthia Bartlett’s house in Palos Verdes Estates, CA for our third annual ONE STRONG KICK event to support the Darfur United team and Soccer Academy. The evening was hosted by event emcee Erik Passoja and woven together with music by duet David Veerman and Crystal Kakabeen and Santa Barbara’s David Courtenay and Band.

Darfur United Coach Ambassadors Mark Hodson and Rachael Rapinoe were present to speak about both the team’s journey to the ConIFA World Football Cup coming up in June and the launch of the Darfur United Soccer Academy last October. The Academy now has over 900 boys and girls kicking, passing, and learning leadership skills through soccer. Margo Baker, who is heading to eastern Chad this Saturday to join Gabriel and Sara-Christine, was also present. Margo will be helping select the 2014 Darfur United Squad who will travel to Sweden at the end of May.

We also premiered the new VICE video about Darfur United, which is part of Budweiser’s Rise As One campaign leading up to the 2014 World Cup this summer:

All told we raised over $19,000. ONE STRONG KICK indeed! Thank you to all who came to the event, brought friends, purchased raffle tickets, and participated in the Darfur Honor Hall. If you were not able to attend the event, there is still plenty of time to support the team’s journey! You can sponsor a field position here. Once the team is selected you will get to learn more about the player you will be supporting.

Until ONE STRONG KICK 2015, Salud!

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Thank you to those who sponsored the event:

John and Cynthia Bartlett