The Sports Equipment Deal

Update: I have since recieved more info about shipping. This is what it should look like:

You should send all packages to this address:

Peace Corps Director (Please do not put my name on the outside of the box)
Av Bolivar 451, Gazcue
Apartado 1412
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Please put my name on a sheet inside of the box in addition to the best address for me to send feedback such as pictures to.

And here is a standard letter asking for help...

Dear Family & Friends,

Greetings from the Dominican Republic! I would like to send this letter to inform everyone of a new youth initiative in which we could use your support.

What is it? Serve and Play (Servir Y Jugar) is a Peace Corps initiative serving the Dominican Republic. It's goal is to stimulate volunteering while simultaneously providing the children and young people of communities of limited resources the opportunities to learn leadership and to participate in healthy activities. Serve and Play aids to promote Sirve Quisqueya, a national initiative to promote volunteer service by all Dominican youth.

How It works: The Peace Corps Volunteers will work with young people in the communities, having taught them the importance and effective methods to plan and execute community development projects. They will also help young people and children to track the hours that they have done. For their community service, Peace Corps Volunteers reward the youth with Sports Equipment available through Serve and Play. We have had great success with the program and therefore our inventory is rapidly diminishing.

What we need: We could use sports equipment of any type, Dominican youth love baseball, softball, basketball, and volleyball. In particular I could use (all kinds of soccer stuff!!)

How to send it: You should send all packages to this address:
Peace Corps Director (Please do not put my name on the outside of the box)
Av Bolivar 451, Gazcue
Apartado 1412
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Please put my name on a sheet inside of the box in addition to the best address for me to send feedback such as pictures to.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

This was my origional post...

So I have this idea. And I need some help with it. I’ve got this soccer team going here. There’s between 20 and 30 kids, sometimes up to 40, practicing 3 times a week. They are totally psyched about soccer and we played our first game last weekend. The day before they went out in the woods and found six poles, (I know poles sounds weird but I can’t think of the right word) and hammered together their goals. We cut the outfield grass with machetes the day before too, which resulted in a big blood blister on my index finger, and we lined the field with sand. The games the next day were a lot of fun. They played all morning and everyone from Pedro Sánchez took a kid from the opposite team home to eat lunch with their family. Then we all went to the local watering hole for a swim. Ok, this is where I need your help. Half of these kids play in bare feet. We have two balls to practice with, which significantly limits the things I can teach. That is saying nothing about shin-guards and goals. But there is an up side. Peace Corps DR has this program called servir y jugar (to serve and play) which gets kids involved in doing community service projects and as a reward they earn sporting equipment depending on the amount of hours they put in. The equipment comes from donations from the states; both new and used stuff. So my thought was to ask you guys for donations. Not so much individually but maybe you could take this idea to your soccer team or club. And maybe everyone could get together all their old gear, it doesn’t even have to be old if you don’t want, and send it down here to the DR. Once it gets here it goes into the pot, up for grabs to all the other volunteers and their kids, although I would get first pick for my kids. So what is needed? Cleats, shin guards, and balls are needed most. Jerseys, pennies, cones or disks, mini-goals, and goalie gloves would not be turned away either. And if you want to take this further, other sporting equipment especially baseball stuff would be put to good use by kids all over this country. And remember this is not just handouts. These kids may be learning about community service for the very first time and may even earn their very first pair of cleats in the deal too. To get it here just mail it in a big box to me at the address on the side of this page. It’s actually the address to the PC office in the capital but that’s where I pick up all my mail. And if you wanted t throw some religious signs and symbols on the package for surer and safer delivery that wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Or you could address it to Pastor or Padre or even Hermana Matthew Ferner. If you have any questions about this proposition just let me know. I am planning on sending Calvin a more formal letter and if you think any other schools athletic departments would be interested let me know too. That’s it. Much love. Matt