Doing good, it seems, is contagious, it feels good and can spread like a virus.
As I wrote yesterday, Ali and the RISSE soccer team have been struggling to find space for indoor practice time this winter.
Ir costs hundreds of dollars to rent indoor space and the RiSSE team is competing with much wealthier, mostly suburban soccer competitors: the other teams are well equipped, well-funded and parent and community supported.
Watching the games, I am reminded that class matters very much in America.
Yesterday, a breakthrough (this morning, another).
Kevin Smith, an Angel who owns Sportsplexofhalfmoon just outside of Albany, agreed to give the RISSE soccer team a discount so they could practice on Saturday mornings, a time that is sometimes open in a full schedule. Ali and I have been strategizing for weeks about how to get more indoor practice sessions a week, their competitors often get three or four.
In the Spring the soccer team will face lavishly funded competitors with the best equipment and coaching who will have been practicing all winter. The Bedlam Farm Warriors rarely get to practice at all, and it would be like a baseball team going into the summer season with no winter training.
Ali and I work well together, he and I brainstorm, and I guess I’m the “closer,” i make the deal. He knows better than anything what these young men need, and I always follow his instincts.
Ali suggested I look for Sunday afternoon slots, most of the competing team members are at Church or just getting back, and there might be time available to rent out.
Keven and I have been talking and connected. He is an awfully nice person, he admires the team and their work ethos and he and I definitely clicked, he is someone who is interested in doing good and I liked and respected him right away.
Kevin and I agreed to $600 for two months of practice, 90 minutes each Saturday morning, a price well below his usual rate. Ali was delighted, but I knew he and the team members felt once a week still leaves them at a disadvantage. I gave him a credit card number and it was done.
The Army Of Good also paid the soccer team’s entrance fee for an indoor tournament at the end of February, it was $375, also at a discount.
Back home in their birth countries, the refugees often played barefoot and in open fields, there were no uniforms, fancy sneakers or fees. In this country, parents financially support the soccer teams, they pay for the fees and uniforms.
The RISSE parents have no money and little time – they are always working.
The soccer team, says Ali, would not be in existence if not for the Army of Good.
I was determined to find a second practice venue, but Kevin has been especially good to the team members – he bought them all pizza when they came to play in an indoor tournament – and they love playing in his indoor arena. So I got this bug early this morning to call Kevin and see if we could work out more money. I got up early to pour though the latest donations and see what we had in the refugee/Mansion fund.
We did have the money, it was a bit close.
Last night, I emailed Kevin and asked if there were any chance of our getting a Sunday afternoon slot – perhaps between 3 and 5 p.m. I said I thought I could raise another five or six hundred dollars to pay for the additional time. The RISSE all girls basketball team is getting organized, and they will need things like uniforms and some equipment, so I want to be careful about running out of funds.
This morning, I got an e-mail early from Kevin at 9 a.m.
…”We can definitely accommodate the boys for a slot on Sunday afternoons,” he wrote, “please have Ali touch base with me and we can iron out the specifics. The previous payment will be able to cover the additional practices. The generosity of the Army Of Good is contagious.”
I e-mailed Kevin back and asked if he was sure, I said I didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness. He answered right back: “Not at all, it’s nice to be part of something good.”
I have to meet this man.
I was jubilant, it was better than having a book hit the New York Times best seller lists.
it just felt so wonderful for this to happen, to be reminded how good people are, and to be reminded again that there are so many good people int he world who speak to our better angels, and know the experience of compassion and empathy. Kevin is such a man, if you wish you can tell him directly at [email protected], I think he would appreciate hearing from the Army Of Good. He admires you.
As Kevin suggested, and I am learning, doing good is contagious, it’s the virus of the angels.
I had the pleasure of calling Ali early and waking him up to tell him we had two 90 minute practice sessions for the next two months at the Sportsplex. This is a big deal for me, for the team, and for the idea of community.
Ali and the soccer team are so important to these young men, they have been through a great deal and have shown courage and strength throughout. They stand firmly behind one another. At the retreat, one boy wanted to speak but was shy, and the other team members encouraged him, told him to take his time, urged me to be patient and wait. It was a lovely thing to see.
The soccer team is, in a way, their pathway to acclimation in America, they are learning so much and seeing so much. And they are staying on a good path, away from the always beckoning trouble of the streets.
And they are getting a bit famous. Several local schools and colleges have invited them to sing the National Anthem at some of their athletic games.
So for the second time in two days, I have to thank Kevin Smith. He has given the team a bigger boost that perhaps he even knows. I hope to see the team practice soon, maybe as early as this weekend. And I am eager to meet Kevin Smith. Good men like that are not easy to find, but yet, I learn every day that there are so many good people in the world, and they are eager to do good given the chance.
If you wish to support the Refugee/Mansion work, you can donate via my post office box, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via paypal, [email protected]. Please note “refugee” or “Mansion” or “both on your checks. Thanks so much, your good hearts are infectious, it seems.
Thomas Merton was correct when he wrote that love and compassion will always triumph over evil and cruelty in the end. We are singing our song and making joyful noises to the world.
