Below you'll find an article about a banquet where Kicks raised $3,200. Transcript of the article below:
Banquet Raises Funds for Global Kicks Project
Photojournalist’s project well received at local event.
By Justin Strawser – Staff Writer
COAL TOWNSHIP –
A photojournalist who spends time helping poor children around the globe got a boost for his work from the coal region Saturday night.
Michael Gage, founder of KICKS – the Key to Implementing Change begins by Kicking a Soccerball – explained his organization and its goals to a receptive audience at the Inaugural Autumn Extravaganza, a formal banquet at Nos-Trovia.
The event attracted 127 people and, at $25 a ticket, raised $3,175 for KICKS, which Gage started in an effort to offer much needed supplies and social interaction to children in poor countries. “Hopefully we’ll get connections,” he said about his effort here and elsewhere to spread the word about KICKS.
Gage said building partnerships with local and national organizations is vital to his cause, and he asked those in attendance to help him with connections, volunteering and donations.
Universal Language
Gage told the audience, which enjoyed a cocktail hour with acoustic music, a buffet-style dinner, Gage’s presentation and a band and dancing, that his work toward change begins with a soccer ball. “One thing that everyone in the world understands is soccer,” Gage said.
He said children are more willing to listen to people talk about important issues concerning their community after they have had a few hours of soccer play. That’s when he pulls them into a circle and, while they rest and re-hydrate, he communicates. “You gain their trust this way,” he said.
The idea for KICKS began with a chance meeting of three children in the jungles of Marangu in Tanzania, Africa. Gage writes about those children in his online biography describing how they changed his perspective and purpose in life.
After interacting with the children, he learned from his translator/guide that they had lost their younger sibling to malaria just days earlier. Gage was amazed how such a disease could be an accepted way of life. With that, his worldwide travel took on new meaning. “We decided to make trips based around helping others,” he said.
Nos-Trovia owner Mary Lenig, who is part of KICKS and has accompanied Gage on his trips to impoverished nations invited gage to speak at her establishment. “Being involved is being aware of something outside yourself,” she said in discussing Gage’s visit. “These things are going on in the world; whether you acknowledge it or not, it’s still happening.”
She said it is not only necessary to acknowledge a problem, but to take action. “Any time there is knowledge, there is accountability,” she said. “Whether it’s in our backyard or Africa, I believe that, coming from the greatest nation of the world, we hold ourselves accountable.”
