If you asked the members of our Cares team what their favorite events are to work, they would tell you that’s an easy decision. Any event involving kids. This past Saturday was one of those favorite events.

We had the pleasure of going to TOPSoccer in Vint Hill on Saturday, Oct. 8. The organization is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers.

Their program is designed to bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any child who has a mental or physical disability. The goal is to enable the thousands of young athletes with disabilities to become valued and successful members of the U.S. Youth Soccer family.

This particular group comprises 50 athletes from Prince William and Fauquier counties. The program leaders are really happy to have a large group like this because, usually, such programs only have around eight to 10 participants. Needless to say, they’re very proud of their numbers.

Each Saturday, the kids come in and there are two programs: one for kids who can complete drills and the second for kids who can’t do a full hour of drills. There’s a program for every level of player, no matter their disability. When you enter the arena, you can tell who everyone is. Players wear light blue shirts, volunteers wear yellow, and certified volunteers wear navy and white polos. 

TOPSoccer needs just as many volunteers as they have kids because each player gets a volunteer assigned to them for the day. Volunteers are based on different levels of skill, as they need to be certified to work with players who have more severe levels of disability.

It was our pleasure to make a donation to the Piedmont chapter of TOPSoccer. The kids loved their backpacks stuffed with F.H. Furr goodies.