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Hundreds of Charlotte families have opened their hearts and checkbooks to help a British boys' soccer team stranded in this area - for the next two weeks - by Iceland's erupting volcano.
The under-18 squad from Reading, England, boasts promising players with professional aspirations who came to Charlotte last week to compete. They won the annual Julian Brown Memorial Cup over the weekend, and taught skills clinics to area youngsters.
But as players prepared to return on Monday, the team learned its flight home to London had been canceled. Menacing ash clouds spewed from the volcano have crippled air traffic across much of Europe for days.
Although some flights resumed Tuesday through London, returning flights are jammed. The Reading team - which lives and plays about an hour west of the capital city - can't get home until May 3.
So the 21 players, coaches and friends are now camped out at Ballantyne's Aloft hotel, with most expenses paid, thanks to the generosity of Charlotte's extended soccer community.
"It's quite humbling," Reading Royals coach David Dodds said. "We're stranded. We can't get back, even if we had a million dollars. And they told us everything would be taken care of."
The first e-mail seeking help went out around 10 a.m. Tuesday. In six hours, tournament organizers with the Charlotte United Futbol Club had received nearly 300 e-mails from families offering up lodging and money.
Also donated are a tour of Bank of America Stadium, tickets to a Charlotte Bobcats playoff game, and tickets to next week's Quail Hollow golf tournament.
"The response has been almost mind-boggling," said Sean Sossano, assistant tournament director. "It's something I've never seen in my life."
"They're here from a foreign country. It's kind of uncomfortable for them," Sossano said. "So we reached out to our club and asked for help."
Late Tuesday, the Royals ate dinner at Nothing but Noodles on Elizabeth Avenue, talking about their bad luck and good fortune.
Center/midfielder Jonathan Henly, 16, sporting spiky blond hair and a black warm-up, ticked off the list of donations he and his team will enjoy in Charlotte.
"The support has been overwhelming," said Henly, who hopes to make soccer his career.
"Yesterday, when we found out (about the delay), we were a little bit nervous. May 3 seemed a long way away. People here have been really giving."
