About
Hi, I’m Will. I’m a rising Senior in high school from New York City. Through my project, Throwing for Kicks, I have been working to provide the children of the Yoseftal Community Center in Hadera, Israel, and the JCCA in Pleasantville, New York, with equipment to play soccer and the ability to play Frisbee. With the money I have raised, I designed uniforms, soccer bags, and soccer balls for the kids in Hadera, while also designing and donating Frisbees to the children in Pleasantville. I have been passionate about supporting the Center for as long as I can remember (I raised money for the Center as my Bar Mitzvah project!) and I’m so excited about this new initiative along with my recent involvement at the JCCA.
the Yoseftal Community Center
The Yoseftal Community Center serves as the primary meeting place for the 5,000 residents of the Yoseftal neighborhood in Hadera, Israel. Nearly every day of the week, from morning to evening, children, teens, adults, families, and seniors participate in a variety of activities at the Center, reflecting the diversity of the city’s population.
The city of Hadera has rapidly grown from a historical settlement to a large city of over 100,000 residents. Originally founded in 1891, the city has doubled its size twice over since the 1990s, absorbing significant waves of immigration from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. The city continues to grow through the influx of young families seeking low-cost alternatives to high-cost housing in the center of the country. The Yoseftal neighborhood is particularly vulnerable, as it is home to a significant population of low-income immigrants who have large families.
The residents lack the resources to pay for recreational and community activities. Therefore, the Center has a very limited operational budget and requires considerable municipal subsidies to function and adequately serve the needs of the community. It is particularly important for the Center to have the capacity to engage young children and teens to ensure they remain off the streets after school hours, and in safe and structured frameworks.
As you know, sports play a crucial role in children’s lives and development, providing them with numerous physical, psychological, and social benefits. Engaging in sports can be transformative, offering children opportunities for leadership development, team building, personal growth, and a chance to overcome adversity. With this in mind, we sought to establish a soccer program at the Yoseftal Community Center for approximately 22 children.
The children, from six to 12 years old, are divided into two groups. A professional soccer coach trains each group for one hour, twice a week. The groups benefit from using new equipment, and each child receives a soccer kit, including a team uniform, soccer ball, and gym bag. In addition to the soccer program, the five children who demonstrate exceptional talent have the opportunity to try out for the competitive soccer league in the city, and if selected, they would receive a scholarship for one year of participation.
The Soccer program
THE JCCA
In 1912, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society completed the first cottage-style residential school in the U.S., the Pleasantville Cottage School (PCS), situated on a scenic 160-acre property in Westchester County. PCS was recognized as a groundbreaking project in child welfare, relocating children from crowded urban orphanages to a vast, serene environment conducive to play, mental well-being, and holistic development. Twelve years after its inception, PCS introduced the country's first psychiatric clinic within a child welfare setting. Over a century later, the Pleasantville Cottage Campus continues to thrive, now offering programs for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, complex trauma, and histories of commercial sexual exploitation and abuse.
SOME ULTIMATE TEACHING
I have had the privilege of visiting the JCCA in Pleasantville on multiple occasions, where I have engaged with the children by teaching them the fundamentals of properly throwing a frisbee and the overall mechanics of playing Ultimate Frisbee. Recognizing the enthusiasm and potential of the children, I took the initiative between visits to design and donate custom frisbees. These frisbees were intended to provide the children with the necessary equipment to practice during their free time, encouraging physical activity and fostering a sustained interest in the sport.