KSC Distributes 349 Books to Youth at Spring Family Day through SAVE Initiative

The Soccer Athletes Value Education (SAVE) initiative has been hard at work this year collecting books and distributing them through programs and events. When SAVE volunteers are not sharing diverse children’s and young adult books to our awesome children and families, they are sorting the collection of books and displaying them in the clubhouse for guests to peruse.

At Family Day, a handful of SAVE volunteers distributed books to all of the attendees. There were books of a variety of genres, and engaging topics for all reading levels. As teams celebrated their seasons with kind words and medals from their coaches, SAVE founder Pat Hardy and some incredible volunteers handed books to each of the athletes. Amid the “Wow, cool” and other comments about the exciting lego books that one team received, an athlete said, “I already read that” - to which Pat said, “don’t worry, I have another one for you just like it.” SAVE initiative is special because it provides books for children with different levels of access to books a collection that was intended to be shared.

Like our soccer programs, SAVE is an initiative for all ages and all genders. Among the 349 Books that were distributed include books for athletes ages 3-19. Family Day was almost a culmination of an academic year of book distribution. Pat Hardy corralled coaches and volunteers to distribute books to students in our OST programs before their major winter and summer breaks. Additionally, SAVE Volunteer and Coach Carly, hosted a pre-practice homework club through the SAVE initiative. Thanks to the tireless efforts of SAVE volunteers, we distributed hundreds more books over the course of the year.

It is incredible how far SAVE has come since its inception. The SAVE initiative honors the roots of the organization in the Philadelphia education system, and offers a way to expand education beyond the walls of the school buildings. As students attend programs for fun (and other benefits associated with extra-curricular involvement), the books, mentoring, and resources distributed through the SAVE initiative reinforce the interconnections between athletic and scholastic development. More importantly, some of the SAVE participants who attended the college tours in the early years of KSC, are now helping emphasize the importance of education as coaches and staff for our organization. We are interested in continuing to expand this initiative in line with the growth of the organization. As schools enter this summer break, we are reminded of the way literacy and academic success contribute to greater opportunity; more importantly we are warmed that the 349 books we distributed in one day help address another form of inequality some of our brightest athletes are plagued by: educational opportunity.

We would like to thank our partners BookSmiles and FirstBook, as well as the incredible local bookstores who we rely upon to fill our clubhouse, and our black SAVE crates with books our wonderful athletes can see themselves in. If you are interested in volun