A SCORES Family
A SCORES Family
By Kevin Calderon
I joined SCORES in 2017 and met Leah Morales, the program director in San Rafael and Oakland. When she introduced me to this gem of an org, I knew SCORES was special. The SCORES culture and vision involves empowering our youth through the beautiful game of soccer, poetry and service learning. The mix of our programs was an eye opener to how much joy, love and enlightenment it brought to the people and their communities .
I had personally felt the need to spread this mission and culture to everyone, starting off with my family. My brother Justin Calderon now 18 years old, didn’t get the chance to receive what it was to be in a SCORES team in his earlier years. But of course I would tell him to tag along when we would hold SCORES game days, where one can truly take in the values and intentions of our program. He slowly began to be involved with SCORES activities from volunteering to be referee, creating short films about our students and community, to coaching his own SCORES team at Coleman elementary and supporting Coach Alex at San Rafael game days.
As quoted by my brother, “Working with SCORES has allowed me realize how beneficial the program is to our underserved communities through our free services. Seeing the community come together and parents supporting their kids brings me happiness and makes it worthwhile to keep working with SCORES”
Génesis Calderon, my little sister has had the opportunity to receive our programming directly through camps and events that SCORES has held. I was fortunate enough to be able to have Génesis play in the San Rafael game days even though the school she attended was out of the district that we served. She has explored her passion of soccer and has been able to build confidence through creative expression as well as giving back to her community. She has embodied what we like to call a Poet-Athlete, and I’m grateful that SCORES is apart of her life. SCORES is magical and I hope everyone gets to experiences such an inclusive-community based environment.
