Strikers soccer players make community service projects a way of life

By Joe Lacdan
jlacdan@mysuburbanlife.com
1st mae 2nd bb They’ve collected food for underprivileged families, kicked soccer balls with children who could not afford to play for a sports team and helped repair homes for needy families.

In nearly two years of volunteer work, players from the Fox Valley Strikers soccer club have learned the value of selflessness and making sacrifices for less fortunate individuals.

The message of their work couldn’t come at a better time.

With area residents enduring a tough economic period and more families losing homes to foreclosure, a few hours of volunteer work can prove invaluable, the players say.

“People don’t realize some families don’t have the financial help they need,” said the Strikers’ Kait Krause, 16, of Geneva. “They need support and people who are thinking of them and want to help their family out.”

During the 2006 holiday season, St. Charles residents Shaylee and Jenna Pedersen formed the Give, Offer, Advocate, Love and Serve program, a monthly volunteer service where they dedicate time to community service.

Strikers players, who hail mostly from St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia, must complete one or two service projects per season depending on their age, but the four teams in GOALS do a service project each month.  

“Giving back to the community and giving back to the less fortunate — I think it opens a lot of the kids’ eyes to things,” said Strikers president Pat Feulner. “We live in a pretty affluent area; I think some of the kids aren’t aware of some of the hardship kids live with every day.”

For the teams in GOALS, composed of girls ages 14 to 18, volunteering has become a regular part of life.

On Saturday Nov. 15, team members visited the Little Angels home in Elgin to spend time with children who require 24-hour medical attention and have severe physical disabilities. Earlier this month, team members helped replace siding and insulation at the home of a recently widowed Aurora father, as part of the Habitat for Humanity program.

Their work has made them more thankful this Thanksgiving, grateful for things often taken for granted: family and their homes.

“It made me realize how fortunate I really am,” said Jenna Pedersen, 15.

The Strikers also have collected brush and moved trees as part of a reclamation project at Campton Hills Forest Preserve. Aside from building team camaraderie, parents said, volunteering teaches players about societal issues and struggles.

“If we can instill the sense of volunteering in them, when they become adults it becomes a way of life,” Kim Pedersen said.

In December, the team will take part in Dreams for Kids for the third time, helping host a Christmas party for disadvantaged and disabled children from the Chicago area. Other activities include handing water to Special Olympics athletes in a half-marathon, delivering blankets to patients at the Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton and planting flowers at the Lazarus House Women and Children’s Center in St. Charles.

“All these girls are very compassionate, (the volunteer program) does help them mature and work with a lot of people of different types of personalities and different needs,” parent Cindy Rodriguez said.

Kait Krause and fellow Striker Kristin Rodriguez both plan to continue helping others and pursue careers in physical therapy.