VOLUNTEERISM
Bridging two worlds through soccer
In Dzoole, a rural village of sub- Saharan Malawi, Martha Pigott’s soccer ball caused a small sensation.
Every day, Pigott said, teenage boys in the village where the Peace Corps stationed her last year borrowed her ball to play for hours on a makeshift field.
“When I told them they could just keep it, they were like ‘Oh my God, you own our team now. You have to watch us,’ ” she said.
To help more of the village’s youth play the sport, Grand Island native Pigott is working with the Delaware Soccer Club to tap the masses of discarded soccer equipment stashed away in Buffalo basements.
“It seems that every family has a ball and a pair of shin guards in their basement, so we’ll see what we can get,” Delaware Soccer Club President Jeff Lebsack said.
The club is planning to have a donation drive for the Dzoole teams and underprivileged Buffalo players Sept. 13 in Delaware Park.
Shoes, jerseys, shin guards and practice materials will be sent to Malawi to be used in a children’s soccer camp run by an older team Pigott founded.
The village’s first team — called the Dzoole Medicals after the village health center where Pigott works — went from barefoot pickup games to winning a regional championship after Pigott registered them in a local league.
Pigott said she was able to purchase 11 jerseys for the team to wear in the finals, but many players still played barefoot or with one shoe worn on their kicking foot.
With fewer shoes than players, and a 1z-hour trek to the tournament, the players’ enthusiasm won them the championship.
“When we knew that we were going to win, it was just pandemonium because so many people watch these games, because it’s the only entertainment,” Pigott said.
The team won $12,000 Malawi Kwacha, or about $90, which Pigott said they want to use to buy their goalie a jersey and gloves.
While on home leave from her Peace Corp mission in June, Pigott approached the Delaware Soccer Club for donations and received three full uniforms and a box of trophies along with the club’s support for collecting more gear for her players, Lebsack said.
Lebsack said the club had been considering community service projects, and Pigott’s cause struck the board as ideal.
