Soccer association holds clinic, food collection

The South Iredell Soccer Association aims to teach young soccer players a lesson of being charitable during the holiday season.

SISA is hosting a soccer clinic together with North Carolina-based nonprofit, Kicking4Hunger, on Dec. 8 to benefit the Mooresville Soup Kitchen.

All of the canned food collected will be donated to the Mooresville Soup Kitchen. Food Lion has agreed to match every can of food donated.

The clinic is free, however, participants are asked to bring a canned food donation to attend. The clinic is for ages 6-17.

Kicking4Hunger, a nonprofit and volunteer run organization based in Chapel Hill, began in 2006. Jordan Pearson, Director of Operations said it started as a small group of people who wanted to give back to the local community. The organization runs clinics throughout the state to collect food to be given back to the local community.

Pearson said the clinics help kids to understand the game of soccer as well as the importance of service to the community.

Many of the clinics are in the summer and are several days long. Pearson said Kicking4Hunger has grown to operate more than 20 camps in North Carolina last summer, as

well as camps in California and in South Korea.

Pearson said the chance for young athletes to be coached by Davidson College coaches and players will be a valuable learning experience and will help teach them to be better players.

“Our goal is to fight hunger using soccer to pull it together,” Pearson said.

Scott Morrison, Mooresville resident and director of communications for SISA, said the event is a good fit for the club, which is trying to grow in the community and put more of a focus on charitable causes.

Within the last year SISA has added challenge leagues for various age groups as well as adult leagues.

Morrison said the next step for the organization is helping the community.

“The platform is bringing a lot of volunteers,” Morrison said. “This is the perfect size event to get our feet wet working in the community.”