CASL 40th Anniversary: CASL Teams Host School Supply Drive

It's been a while since my last blog update. The month hiatus was primarily due to my personal life developments. I was married in July so was gone for a good chunk of the summer (if you see Eberhardt come across your email - it's from me!). However, now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'm looking forward to more frequent blog updates and informally sharing with you the happenings at CASL.

This year, CASL entered a landmark year. CASL officially turned 40 in March , and we've been celebrating all year long. Most of our celebrations have come in the form of soccer specific and soccer-related service activities. It has been our goal of this anniversary year to show how we are living our mission in everything that we do both on and off the field. In case you have never taken notice, here is our mission statement:

The mission of CASL is to provide positive and high-quality instructional and competitive youth soccer opportunities at all levels of play that enhance character, community and the love of the game for a diverse membership of children ages 4-18 and their families across Wake County and to serve as a community partner in improving the quality of life in Wake County. 

The 40th Anniversary efforts have focused on the latter half of our mission: "...to serve as a community partner in improving the quality of life in Wake County". We want to show that CASL and youth soccer in general can be a platform for awareness, change, or action. As an organization, CASL has hosted events like the CASL Play 4Kay 4v4, which was a 100% charitable soccer tournament to benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. With your help, we raised more than $14,000 to support their mission of ending cancer. We also hosted a food drive that generated more than 300 meals for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC. We've hosted and participated in other events and community outreach efforts that have supported our community organizations including Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Ronald McDonald House of Durham, Haven House Services of NC, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and more. For a full list of our efforts, click here. 

'01 CASL Red Ladies

CASL Teams Donate School Supplies

U10G Black North CAYA

What makes us most proud, though, is our teams who take initiative on their own to make an impact in our community. This trickle down effect is powerful and will expand the reach that our youth soccer platform can have. Most recently, two of our teams, the U10G Black North CAYA team and the '01 CASL Red Ladies classic team hosted a team school supply drive to benefit Hope House Inc. located in Wake Forest. Each team spent time gathering and preparing school supply donations for Hope House. To help kickstart their collection efforts, CASL donated school folders and pencils to be distributed through the collection. We also wanted to recognize both teams for "making assists on and off the field" with 40th Anniversary CASL t-shirts.  Thanks to both teams for being role models in our community and for helping make a difference!