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Kenya Prep
Two weeks out and everyday we are tuning up sticks and communicating with our colleagues in Kenya about trip planning. On May 6th, we will journey to Nairobi to drive 12 hours to reach the village of Butula to start the Busia Lacrosse Club
99 lacrosse sticks on the wall, take one down and pass it around, 98 lacrosse sticks on the wall. Here I am glued to my miniature yellow chair in the Kids Lacrosse The World warehouse cutting old, worn out frayed strings to replace with fresh whites from our pals at Jimalax. My fingers are dried out and cracked from the hours of replacing heads and tuning up the sticks. Our equipment drive in conjunction with our partner LacrosseUnlimited brought in tons of great, used equipment and now the goal is to clean up and tune the used sticks for our students in Kenya, Africa this May. We plan on bringing 30 boys sticks and 10 girls for a total of 40 lacrosse sticks to 200 students.
We've been cutting our teeth here literally the past few weeks pulling old knots apart, threading new nylons and criss-crossing shooters for clean looking sticks. I hope the students will be taking care of the sticks and can only hope when we teach our clinic on stringing and stick maintenance they remember, chances are I will make them demonstrate what they have learned (probably took me 5-10 sticks to really get the hang of stringing).
When we first went to Ranau, Malaysia I had gathered a ton of used balls from my friend Matt Bocklet, director of Doco Lacrosse and X10 Camps who generously donated 40 or so slimy, greasers that had been buried for months and stained by the dirt and grass. We are one upping our efforts to bring better quality and will be bringing along 100 brand new lacrosse balls from the good people at Sling It Lacrosse out in California! We can't wait to see how excited the kids are when they see all these fresh balls! The question is how many will they lose? My bet is they will only lose 10 in six months of playing lacrosse. Any other bets?!
As the lacrosse goals are nearing being completely constructed at the Butula Hekima Academy I set out to source two used lacrosse nets here in Denver and came across Greg Martinez of Thunder Ridge High School Lacrosse, one of our big supporters who were able to donate two nets that we will patch up and bring with us to string onto the wooden goals.
T-minus 2 weeks to grand adventure and lacrosse impact!
Letter from the President & Founder
More so than ever the things happening on the global stage are apparent and we are informed. Kids Lacrosse The World had a banner year, well it's our first year but we are incredibly proud of the things we have accomplished and have so much more to be stoked about in the coming future.
Letter from the President & Founder
Today marks the last day of 2015 which ended up as a tremendous year of culture, happenings, and firsts. No time more than now is it apparent that everything in our society is occurring for a reason and that is for everyone to see. With the tragic events that have plagued us to the incredible successes accomplished that which have become front and center stage and we are more informed than we have ever been to witness and be apart of our global world.
I am proud to have created the organization this year and discover where we can go. Kids Lacrosse The World came about from a year long trip abroad and the opportunity I saw within the brilliant young people in communities around the world. It's clear to see the amount of good that is being done on a global level and it comforts me to know we are now a small part of the global cause. With our roots in Denver, Colorado the support we have received is unprecedented from corporations, small business, state senators, elementary schools, and beyond. Together we can achieve more and it has never felt better to work with like minded individuals to achieve a common goal of impacting the international world.
This year brought us the creation of our first sustainable youth lacrosse program based out of Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. The stakes were high for our first program and I couldn't be happier with the results from those 14 days. With over 200 students learning the game of lacrosse and tons of equipment donated, the school recognized us with providing the students an invaluable experience and we formed an amazing relationship with a diverse, beautiful community in Ranau.
Our next few months will be critical as we hope to travel to Kenya to create and develop our African based kids program where there is much work to be done. Towards the spring we plan to return to Sabah to grow the Ranau Program in other schools to create a regional level competition and begin creating a legacy program to further saturate the lacrosse program into the schools.
With all of this will come the challenges and obstacles that face a growing organization as well as a furthering responsibility to the communities here in Denver and that we operate in to carry out our vision and due so in a diligent, responsible manner. Everything we touch I hope to improve and leave better than we found it. From the old equipment donated to the grass fields we play on, our focus should be to always improve and grow, make use and reuse.
““Everyone in this world should wake up on being stoked to do something.””
These words from Will who is someone that I look up to should echo to everyone in this world. Regardless of occupation, it is so important to have a fresh outlook daily and hold a passion that burns bright. It's easy to lose stoke, I look at my own self with working 50+ hours a week at my day job, coaching lacrosse here in Denver, and maintaining my activities outdoors and all the sudden it's easily lost. I push myself back to be stoked and passionate, and with the amazing work we do at Kids Lacrosse The World I find that.
I wish everyone a safe and happy New Years, Cheers to 2015 and Stoke for 2016!