Serving Appreciation
FCCLA group hosts kickball game to give back to single mothers
Kickball volunteers gather to get a group photo captured.
When you picture a family many people might think of two parents with children, but unfortunately not all families consist of this ideal picture. Many students only have one parent. A lot of the time people speak about having a single mother and the difficulties that come along with only having one parent.
As hardworking as both mothers and fathers can be one certain group decided to dedicate a kickball game’s profits to the creation of gift baskets for single mothers.
Senior FCCLA members Carlos Torres, Ryan Nunez, and Michelle Villatoro hosted a kickball game Thursday Jan 31 formed by volunteers.
“A [kickball] game was really out there since I was in a church group and there was about 300 people who volunteered for the game, and they raised a lot of money,” Torres said. “I thought that would be a good idea and an active idea where lots of people would like to be competitive.”
The funds raised will go to buying items that will be in the gift baskets for the mothers that the group is giving back to. Those that volunteer to play will have to pay a $5 entry fee which is how the group will be raising the funds.
“Anybody can join,” Torres said. “They can be in Klein [but they don’t have to] be in Klein as long as we have people there to support our cause.”
Being a part of FCCLA has played a big role for this event because it is the group’s project that they will present at their competition in February.
“I thought the project sounded like a great idea,” FCCLA sponsor Katherine Rooke said. “Carlos, Ryan, and Michelle are competing in FCCLA at the Regional Competition in February. They are competing in a category called Chapter Service Project, where they are hosting a community service event to raise money for a good cause. The students decided to host a kickball tournament to raise money for single moms.”
The event is unique in that it goes towards mothers of students within the community, but Rooke has mentioned that a similar event took place previously, although it was for a different cause.
“We had students do a similar project last year when they hosted a flag football tournament that benefited the National Breast Cancer Foundation,” Rooke said.
FCCLA is a club that is focused towards families and the community, which is why this project has been able to get moving.
“FCCLA is a family community club, so we help out the community and what’s a better way than helping out our own friends from Klein High School and giving back to their families,” Torres said. “And we’re coming as a community to raise all the money so this goes with all our core values for FCCLA.”
Torres also shared what they hope the event will express through understanding the different lives of the families.
“Our achievement is that we at least get the [moms’ side] of how they explain how hard they work and how they maintain their whole entire schedules and supporting their kids, and to help as many moms as we can at Klein High School and give back to them,” Torres said.
As a member of the group and also someone who was around when the initial idea was brought up, Nunez did not initially believe the event would be possible.
“I didn’t really think it would happen like obviously it was an idea, but I thought it would just stay an idea,” Nunez said. “Then we got with the teachers and they started planning it out and it became more than an idea. It started like blossoming into an actual event.”
Although the event is for single mothers, Torres is not personally affected, but Nunez is and is appreciative of the awareness this game will bring towards students with single mothers.
“It’s pretty reassuring because my mom is single,” Nunez said. “So since the divorce however many years ago I’ve seen her working from the ground up to where she is right now, so it’s really, like I’d say eye-opening to see how many single mothers there are and how strong they are.”
