Every year in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada), in a neighbourhood known as The Glebe, there is a huge garage sale that is attended by people from across the city. It’s known locally as the Great Glebe Garage Sale. Nik Nanos, the head coach of a small soccer team, the Ottawa Royals Hellenic Boys U10 team, lives in the Glebe and suggested his team to organize a team fundraising event and party around the sale. At the beginning, it was thought to use the funds for things the team needed, like jerseys and backpacks. But the team was fortunate enough to have these items sponsored by a few parents of the team. Since they didn’t need much else, they decided to donate most of the money raised to a charity project. But which?

Patti Ryan is the mother of one of the players. Together with her husband, her son and daughter she went on a Dharavi Tour with Reality Tours and Travel in 2010. This spring she received our first Newsletter and read about the Girls Football Program and she suggested this project to the team to raise funds for. “Since both of our kids have seen Dharavi and both play competitive soccer, it seemed like a great fit.” Patti mailed us after the event.

There are 13 players in the Ottawa Royals Hellenic Boys U10 team, and they had asked all of their families to donate whatever items they could to the sale. They also sold drinks and treats for a small additional profit. Furthermore they made two large posters to publicize the cause – one poster contained the team name and logos, and the other explained the Yuwa Girls Football Program and featured some of the postcard photos of Dharavi that they purchased two years ago. At the end of the day they raised $450 for our cause – THANK YOU A LOT OTTAWA ROYAL HELLENIC BOYS!

The soccer players of Canada are not our only ambassadors for the Girls Football Team. Emily from Uk decided to compete in the Half Ironman triathlon on Exmoor, which has a reputation as the ‘toughest Half Ironman in the world on the 17th June 2012- a challenge which we totally admire at Reality Gives. She decided to raise funds in advance of the triathlon for the Football program as well. “When I was in India a couple of years ago, I spent some time with them experiencing life in Dharavi and was very impressed by the work they are doing.” Emily mentions on her online fundraising profile that she already raised £315 and aims to achieve £600 until she begins to run. Crazy? Indeed. But we appreciate her engagement a lot.