Kensington Soccer Club Partners with Ourchive at Treehouse Books "Book Swap" Event

On Saturday, March 25th, Up2Us Sports Coach River Mason (They/Them), Deputy Director Maria Blaszczyk (She/Her), and Pat Hardy (She/Her) attended a Book Swap hosted by Treehouse Books and Ourchive. In addition to all of the incredible work they do for Kensington Soccer Club, Coach River Mason is a founding member of the organization Ourchive. “Ourchive is a community based archive providing programming and resources in art, literacy and social justice. We care about learning about organizations and observing, archiving, and understanding different processes in regards to community engagement.” River initiated the collaboration between Kensington Soccer Club and Ourchive at this event hosted by our partner Treehouse Books. In speaking of the benefits, River says, “ I wanted to utilize a resource/opportunity for KSC to vend and connect with community! It's always important to show our face when we can, where we can to spread the word about who we are and what we are about! I am also passionate about this collaboration as we all have similar objectives within our organizations, promoting literacy!”

Pat Hardy also reflected on how this event is related to other KSC initiatives. She says,  “KSC has enjoyed a partnership with Tree House Books for at least 5 years.  Tree House has donated books to our Soccer Athletes Value Education (SAVE), which we gave away to the children in our programs.  The wonderful Tree House Bookmobile has come to our summer camp for the past 2 summers. We share the same focus of giving books to children and youth and increasing literacy.” 

As someone who has coached across different KSC programs (Travel, Rec, Teen & Adult Programs), and photographed at various events, River has a great perspective on why our participation in events like the book swap is important. They said they were quote, “Super happy KSC wanted to table! I figured it would be a good opportunity for us. You never know who you will run into and create a connection with! I briefly got to talk to a child who was interested and eager to play soccer. Hopefully, we run into him soon! I also already knew that we had some partnership with Treehouse before so I thought this was a good way to show face again as Treehouse was looking for vendors.” 

While many of us are familiar with the organization TreeHouse Books, the event gave us all an opportunity to visit their headquarters. With walls covered in books, and a colorful and warm aesthetic the space encourages reading in multiple ways. Visitors are invited to view the large selection of books and can spend time in the space to read and work. River mentioned that they have never been in the Treehouse Books setting and it was, “good to see their home and what they do, since Ourchive always hosts.” They continued, My favorite part would be just connecting with others and also connecting with folks on behalf of KSC, instead of just Ourchive. Most treehouse folks are familiar with my relationship with Ourchive but not with KSC.” 

Maria Blaszczyk had a great time at the event and was happy to learn more about Treehouse Books as well. Beyond the benefits of promoting literacy, this was a special opportunity to learn about the other ways our beloved Coach River impacts our community. We echo River’s sentiments about the importance of participating in events to meet new people and organizations, and spread the word about KSC programs. We look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with Ourchive and highlight organizations that amplify the importance of literacy at all ages and levels.