American professional soccer team Las Vegas Lights FC have made donations to underprivileged children in the Volta Region.
Collaborating with the Think Kindness organization during their excursion for Global acts of kindness, the Lights spread joy halfway around the world.
They donated 40 Lights FC youth jerseys, soccer balls and mini soccer balls that went to a village of Tsibu-Bethel, where the children live in an orphanage, and the Kabore School, located in Ho, Volta Region, Ghana.
There, the Kabore School trains 25 soccer players with no shoes, one soccer ball and socks to protect their feet from the dirt and gravel — the surface used for matches.
When Lights players heard the proposal, they insisted that they provide their own cleats for the kids. That included forward Tabort Etaka Preston, a Cameroon native.
“It’s a privilege for me to give back,” Preston said. “We grow up in a very hard way. There are a million things we don’t have. The little we can give at least is going to help in any way.”
Defender Panzani Sousa, from Democratic Republic of the Congo, said: “It feels very good. It’s a positive movement that we want to do all the time.
“Just give back anything that you have. Anything matters. Everything matters there.”
The Lights recorded a video message from Preston and Sousa that Think Kindness presented to many of the school’s students.
Bishop Gorman senior soccer player Paige Sotelo reached out to the Lights for donations and took part in the trip, along with several other Gorman student-athletes.
“I’m very excited to see that these wonderful kids are wearing the Lights jerseys, because that is my hometown and they’re able to share the love of soccer that I grew up with,” Sotelo said.
Lights owner Brett Lashbrook was proud of the care package.
“Lights FC is always interested in giving back,” he said. “With several players on our roster from West Africa, this one is extra special to them.”
Sousa said the kids just want to play soccer and have the same chances as everyone else.
“I just wanted them to have an opportunity to get the cleats we play with,” he said.