WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Do hard things.
It was a simple challenge for students at Calvary Baptist Day School last summer, urging them to step out of their comfort zones and do something to help others.
It could have been volunteering at church, or it could have been helping a neighbor with yardwork.
After watching a video profile on U.S. Army Pvt. Nick Madaras, Cal Holt, an eighth-grader at Calvary, was inspired to think bigger.
Like Holt, Madaras had a passion for soccer, so much so that when Madaras was deployed to Iraq in 2006, he marveled at how skilled the children were despite rarely playing with proper equipment.
Sometimes it was tin cans that were used as soccer balls; other times it was rolled-up cloth kicked around on rocky fields.
Madaras, who coached youth soccer at home in Connecticut, went out of his way to play with the Iraqi children, trying to let them know that he was there to help. His ultimate plan was to share his passion for the sport by delivering soccer balls to those children - children who found solace in the game, a sort of insulation from the insurgency around them.
He never got the opportunity.
Madaras, 19, was killed Sept. 3, 2006, by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Baqubah.
Ken Dartley, a Korean War veteran, read about Madaras in his local newspaper and, soon after, started a soccer ball drive outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Connecticut.
Eight years later, the Kick for Nick Foundation has delivered 42,000 soccer balls to children all over the world, with a focus on such combat zones as Afghanistan and Iraq.
When Holt saw the joy on the faces of the children in Iraq when they were handed a ball, he decided that his project would be a ball drive for Kick for Nick.
“It really motivated me when I saw all these kids living in these poor conditions had nothing to play with, and I have a lot of soccer balls at my disposal that I can play with, so that inspired me to do it,” he said.
Holt, who in the past had a tough time speaking in front of crowds, stood up in front of both the junior varsity and middle school teams one evening after practice and encouraged them to help out.
The message resonated with teammate Jarod Godwin.
“I just thought we have so much here that giving a soccer ball that a kid can enjoy - play with even though he might not have much - is the least you can do for somebody halfway across the world,” Godwin said.
Nick Madaras’ father, Bill, likes to tell a story about Nick befriending an Iraqi boy he met one day while standing guard on a security detail.
After being chased by other children, the boy ran up to Nick and began speaking Arabic, and Nick responded in English. Neither knew what the other was saying, but every Tuesday, the boy who Nick called “Ned” would come by for their weekly “conversation.”
Nick thought the smiles that they shared said enough.
“Nobody knew what anybody was talking about,” Bill Madaras said. “He just had this ability. He felt like soccer could do the same thing; he didn’t care about those differences. He thought soccer could transcend those differences.”
Eventually, Holt and his Calvary teammates came up with 33 soccer balls to ship out to Kick for Nick in November.
After a few months of wondering where the balls would end up, Holt eventually gave up hope of finding out their destination until an email from Bill Madaras arrived last week with photos attached.
The balls made it all the way to Djibouti, an east African nation where 94 percent of the 800,000 residents are Muslim.
With the donation coming from a private Christian school in Winston-Salem, it’s the perfect symbolism for what Nick Madaras envisioned.
“He didn’t see the difference,” Bill Madaras said. “Soccer cut across all those boundaries. He found a very simple way to put everybody on the same level.”
Holt said he hopes that finding out the balls came from a Baptist school might inspire some of the children to learn about Christianity, but at the end of the day, they’re just like him - they just want to play.
“These kids don’t have food or clean water, and all they want to do is just play soccer,” he said. “I thought that was pretty neat.”
Despite all of their differences, one thing stood out to Godwin in the photos.
“Just their overall joy; the universal look of joy, a smile, is just a beautiful thing to see,” he said. “We can let our differences get between us, but the reality is as Christians, we want to love everyone all the same.
“We may differ in views from you, but we still love you and we’re going to try to help you.”
The “Do Hard Things” movement is inspired by the book “Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations,” encouraging teenagers to find a better use of their time and energy than texting and video games.
Holt’s mother, Laura, said she has seen her son grow in leaps and bounds thanks to taking ownership of the project approaching others to help.
Cal Holt plans to continue gathering soccer balls for Kick for Nick for the foreseeable future, and maybe even stay involved after he goes to college.
At the very least, he said he’ll never forget the smiles of those children just like him and his teammates, thrilled to have a chance to play the game they love.
“I hope teenagers stop sitting around and do something that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. . Doing this, I’ll remember this for a long time,” he said.
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Information from: Winston-Salem Journal, https://www.journalnow.com
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