152 Cleats, 135 Soccer Balls, 30 Uniforms, 30 Shin Guards - 1 Week!

This week at Cleats For Bare Feet, we connected with our newest ambassador, Devin Walford, originally from New Jersey and currently living in South Carolina. She is headed on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic and will be delivering nearly 50 soccer balls to kids who love to play soccer but lack some of the means to do so. Devin worked with a New Jersey uniform company to have uniforms printed for the members of the "Baston de Moises" team in the Domincan Republic. Afterward, she reached out to C4BF through our "I need equipment" section of our website. We are happy to announce that the shipment left our office on May 21 and has arrived with Devin. It will be living in South Carolina for a few days and then on its way to the Dominican Republic in the beginning of June. We wish Devin all the best and look forward to hearing about her experience with the team, her mission, and with Social Giving. As we get pictures, we will post them.

We also connected with 2 organizations that are based in Washington DC, but do work in Africa. Both organizations stopped by our office this week and picked up enough equipment to supply an entire village with gear.


The first organization, the African Volunteer Football Academy for the Less Privileged (AVFAL) provides soccer training to players, ages 8 - 21, in Cameroon. Working directly with the AVFAL's founder and president, John Kemoe Bengu, and the Secretary General, Ngole Cyril e setup a time to deliver 100 pairs of cleats, 50 soccer balls, 30 uniforms, some socks, and goalie equipment to ship over to the kids in Limbe, Cameroon later this year. Mr. Cyril was so excited when he picked up the equipment, he kept saying, "The kids in Cameroon are going to be so excited about this! You have no idea what it will mean to them."

On Friday, after working together for a few weeks we were able to connect with a member of the Propagand’Arts project and school based in Senegal. This makes our third distribution in Senegal this year. "The people in Senegal LOVE soccer," said Awa Daffe, our contact at the organization and person in chanrge of marketing and partnerships. With her help and connections C4BF will be distributing 50 pairs of cleats, 35 soccer balls, and 15 uniforms to the kids at her school. 

Friday's distribution also marked the first distribution our newest intern, Jessica, was able to participate in. The gentleman pictured was interning for one day as part of his high school graduation requirements. Jae Hoon spent the day helping us inventory items, and preparing the package for Awa to pickup. "That was a really rewarding day." 

That's how we feel most days. We are so pleased to be able to help so many people around the world play soccer safer and to reach their potential. Today we inventoried our 6100th item as well. Quite the first week for Jessica and the one day experience for Jae Hoon. SocialGiving at it's best! 

We're close to hitting our two week mark of our fundraising campaign, if you haven't contributed yet, do so before time runs out. 

CONTRIBUTE NOW!

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UMBC & The Next Generation of Social Entrepreneurs

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is committed to educating and mentoring the next generation of the workforce to be “Agents of Change” in their communities. UMBC’s Shattuck Family Internship Program for Entrepreneurship Innovation & Social Change provides selected students with a stipend to intern as member of a start-up for one semester. At the end of the internship, students can apply for seed-funding to support an entrepreneurial venture of theirs.

Andres Camacho and Josh Massey are both students who were selected to be a part of the Shattuck internship program. They have spent the past few months working for Columbia based sustainability company, greeNEWit. In addition to being the state leader in providing household energy retrofits, greeNEWit’s Agent of Change program provides students with an entrepreneurial mindset, both undergraduates and high school students, with mentorship and a supportive environment that encourages interns to develop and flex their social entrepreneurial muscles.

Cleats For Bare Feet (C4BF), a social project operated by the Agents of Change Program and sponsored by greeNEWit, was founded in 2009 with the goal of providing used soccer equipment to less fortunate players all over the world. To date, we have collected over 6000 pieces of equipment and distributed nearly 5000 to smiling kids around the world: The US, Senegal, Cameroon, Romania, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Sudan, Zimbabwe, China, and many others.

As the newest Co-Directors of C4BF, Andres and Josh are working to re-imagine the nature of charitable giving in the 21st century. Last week, C4BF launched a crowdfunding campaign in order to raise the funds needed to create a social media website that connects the following three groups anywhere in the world:

1. People who have second-hand sporting equipment or cleats to donate.

 
2. Players, organizations or schools who need cleats and sporting equipment.

 
3. People who can take cleats abroad while on their travels around the world.

 

The social media web platform will solve the distributive difficulties associated with sending equipment to those in need (it's super expensive!), and it will also re-imagine the typical donation process as a more interactive and enriching experience. Users will be able to track their cleats as they travel the world, discover the impact they are making and connect with others through the love of the game. 

Andres completed the Shattuck program last semester and, thanks to a scholarship from Mayo and Molly Shattuck, will be contributing $1,000 in seed funding to the project. I’d like to give a big “THANK YOU” to Mayo and Molly Shattuck as well as to UMBC, for their support of social entrepreneurship and innovation in undergraduate education. Josh just completed his semester in the program and will be applying for the scholarship from the Shattuck’s as well.

For More information on the Shattuck Family Internship Program Visit the UMBC Shirver Center’s website or read a short release about the 2012 Interns.

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Meet Jessica, our new intern!

We are so pleased to introduce our to our newest teammate, Jessica. She is only with us for a few weeks, while she finished up her last year of high school and heads off to Tuft's University in August. 
"I’m Jessica. I am a senior at Garrison Forest School and will be graduating this June. She is working as an intern at Cleats for Bare Feet for three weeks as part of her senior project. She learned about C4BF through a family friend who works at GreeNEWit. Jessica is interested in studying International Relations and service, so this is a perfect way to learn about real change happening locally. Jessica volunteered in Cambodia last summer and is happy can keep helping children overseas and in the area. I grew up in Columbia and her little sister is an avid soccer player. "I know how much the sport means to kids all over the world and I am so glad to be able to help bring them supplies they need." Jessica also works for her school paper and will be contributing to the C4BF blog."

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C4BF Crowdfunding Campaign coming up! We'd love some feedback before we launch!

Hello Everyone!

Cleats For Bare Feet (C4BF) will be launching a crowdfunding campaign this coming Monday, May 13 on www.Indiegogo.com. We are in the process of finalizing the list of perks and would love your feedback! 

As you may know, C4BF is a student led organization with the goal of getting gently used soccer equipment on the feet of players in need all over the world. We believe in the power of soccer as a means of interacting across cultural boundaries and creating community. We are designing a web platform that will leverage the collaborative abilities of the web in order to connect people who have equipment to donate, players/organizations who need cleats, and people who can take cleats abroad while on their travels around the world. In order to create this charitable social network we need to raise $50,000. The platform will solve the distributive difficulties associated with sending equipment to those who need it and it will also re-imagine the typical donation process as a more interactive and enriching experience. You will be able to track your cleats as they travel the world, discover the impact they are making, and connect with others through the love of the game. This is #socialgiving.

Here is a draft of our current perk offerings:

‪$5 Donation‬

•                Inclusion on the C4BF website contributors page and contributors world map

•                Social Media shout out

$15 Donation

•                C4BF Limited Edition Trading Patch or sticker

$25 Donation

•                The official C4BF Water Bottle

$50 Donation

•                
‪Customizable virtual "patch" of logo, picture, or message‬
(50x50 Pixel) on our contributors page

$100 Donation

•                C4BF T-shirt made by HRBmovement

•                
‪Customizable virtual "patch" of logo, picture, or message (100x100 Pixel) of your choice on our contributors page‬



$500 Donation

•                1 Socket Ball, an energy generating soccer ball. Learn more at: http://unchartedplay.com/

•                Customizable virtual "patch" of logo, picture, or message (200x200 Pixel) of your choice on our contributors page

$1000 Donation: Corporate Sponsor

•                Aarrow Sign Spinning Package: 1 custom sign and 5 hours of professional sign spinning; a $300 value for FREE! (Limit 5 & 60 Mile Radius from Columbia, MD.)

$5000 Donation: Premium Corporate Sponsor

•                Featured Logo on our website (Sponsors page and Contributors Page)

◦       Spotlight on website main page for 3 months

•                Aarrow Sign Spinning Package: 1 custom sign and 5 hours of professional sign spinning; a $300 value for FREE! (Limit of 5 & 60-Mile Radius from Columbia, MD.)

•                *Perk in the making (crossing our fingers): Signed used cleats from a professional soccer player

What do you think?! All feedback is GREATLY appreciated
c4bf@greeNEWit.com

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