This past school spring break 40 North Minneapolis soccer players poured into Farview Park for the Sanneh Foundation soccer clinic. Most of the soccer players were Hmong and Latino. Many of the Hmong soccer players were born in Thai refugee camps.
Several times during the year, the Sanneh Foundation comes to North Minneapolis and provides training for players from poor families who could not normally afford this type of coaching. In addition, the Sanneh Foundation has donated soccer shoes, balls, water bottles, backpacks and shirts to the players.
The Sanneh soccer camps emphasize soccer as a fun part of a healthy lifestyle of exercise and good eating. Both veteran soccer players and those trying soccer for the first time enjoy coming to the clinics. This April, in addition to learning soccer skills, players learned about good sportsmanship, and even learned a little Italian. In October the Foundation combines its soccer clinic with a Halloween party.
In the fall, the Northside Hmong and Latino soccer players play in the Minneapolis Parks League, for the Farview Park and Bethune Park soccer teams. All the players have gotten training and soccer balls from the Sanneh Foundation, and most wear soccer shoes donated by the Foundation.
With the Foundation’s help, the Farview Park soccer team has won two city-wide tournaments and six regular season championships in the past three years, and the Bethune soccer team has won two city-wide tournaments and were runners-up in a third city-wide tournament.
Each March the Foundation holds its major fundraiser, Gala4Goals. And every year the Farview soccer team member come and tell the participants how the Sanneh Foundation helps North Minneapolis soccer players. It is the soccer players’ way of saying “Thank you Sanneh Foundation.”