Been interesting...

We've had a good couple of weeks recently for Ubuntu.  We've met with lots of great people: Lyston Peebles of Cherokee Gives Back, Renae Newmiller @ Edenton St. UMC, spoke at Crossroads Fellowship on Sunday morning.  

One fun thing is that our equipment drive really kicked off with CASL this past weekend.  This week there was even mention of it in the News & Observer.  Here is the link to the article it was included in: http://www.newsobserver.com/257/story/113598.html. 

The only problem with collecting all this stuff to ship is that we have to get it over there!  That's not cheap!!  If you know anybody that does shipping or wants to contribute towards the shipping costs, send them our way.

Together,

Casey

Another great event...

Last week Millbrook hosted another GOAL event for us at the soccer game vs. Wakefield.  This time we raffled off the ipod nano that BEST BUY donated to us.  Our buddy, Kyle LaCivita ended up winning!  He's the younger brother of Spencer LaCivita, the goalie for Millbrook, whom I train.
This was just another great night of getting to share about what God is planning with Ubuntu Sports Outreach. People there are excited and supportive of us. They are bringing their old equipment and buying their shirts and bracelets. Hopefully the story is getting spread throughout this city and beyond!

This last picture is of Sarah, my wife, and some of our support team members, The Latta Family! Chris Latta is on our Board of Directors for Ubuntu.

Big News!!

On Friday Ubuntu Sports Outreach received it's letter from the IRS giving it tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization!!  This is a huge development.  All gifts given to the organization are now tax deductible.  It opens up opportunities to apply for grants from a few foundations that require this to be complete.  

It's an even more amazing development because about 3 weeks ago the IRS website said it was reviewing applications submitted in April and we submitted ours in July.  We were nervous that it wouldn't get done by the end of the year.  But it seems that if God was involved and got it reviewed much quicker!  (I just looked and the website still says April!)  We've known organizations that spent 2 years or more getting this status accomplished. 

So, this has been a big boost this week for us.  If you know of people, foundations, churches, or businesses that we should be sharing our vision with, let me know!!

Cheers,

Casey

Another successful meeting

We met this week with Sports Endeavors.  They own Eurosport, which is the nation's leading soccer equipment supplier.  Every serious soccer player in America gets the Eurosport catalog and probably orders A LOT of stuff from there.  They happen to be a local company.  

They were encouraging of what we are doing and offered to help through their Passback program.  
This is what the website says to describe the Passback program: 

The Passback Program, in partnership with Eurosport, and with the support of MLS and WPS players, is an initiative of the U.S. Soccer Foundation to help meet the soccer uniform and equipment needs of all communities, regardless of income, gender or location.

We are excited to start a relationship with this great company.