This past weekend a group of 107ist members volunteered at the Metropolitan Family Service Community Cup Soccer Tournament and Resource Fair (formerly Soccer de Mayo), hosted at Davis Elementary. The Community Cup is an annual soccer tournament for elementary students in East Portland who participate in the SUN (Schools Uniting Neighborhoods) program through Metropolitan Family Service. The SUN program serves area kids who are homeless, living in poverty, and/or at risk of academic failure. The event featured matches between 12 different MFS SUN Community School coed teams; activities including T-shirt decorating, a photo booth, and a version of duck duck goose with sploosh balls; a delicious lunch for participants; and a community resource fair for families.

We pitched in on a fairly wide variety of volunteer tasks alongside neighborhood parents, teachers, and other community members. Some of us reffed matches, while others helped kids with spelling as they decorated their T-shirts, or prepped food, or checked in the teams and handed out extra shin guards and keeper gloves. The kids' energy and passion for soccer was infectious, both for their own game and the international game—between matches, kids from every group were writing Messi, Ronaldo, or Neymar or drawing the Barça or Real Madrid logo in fabric marker on their blank T-shirts. Who knows, maybe there was a future Timber or Thorn or another Rubio Rubin among the players who got to benefit from this great opportunity.

It was a pleasure to spend a sunny day running around, making art and eating burritos with so many young fans of the beautiful game. We hope to see you there when this event rolls around next May!