This is Romario Blake mug shot!
His crime – intoxicated with excitement to be apart of a two day soccer camp. I went to his uncle’s house to request some help for the 2 day event, saw him and asked him if he wanted to attend the camp; he was elated!
Isn’t his smile infectious? Romario is 7, and if you are familiar with soccer, he has the same first name as one of Brazil’s soccer star – Romario de Souza Faria. Unsurprisingly, Romario wants to become a soccer player.
Romario is one of over 60 kids that I took pictures of and collected some information from: name, age, shoe size, shirt size, and career. The main purpose for this information, as you might guess, is to provide some assistance for them to play the sport of their passion. Ironically, prior to taking Romario’s picture and I hadn’t collected any info from him; so he had no idea of my intent to help provide shoes for kids like him to play – he was just naturally high on soccer enthusiasm (when he was invited to that day to the camp)
Romario on Day 1 of Camp
Day 1: Romario doing his dribbling drill
Day 2: Romario in game with other kids
Romario, along with other kids, gets a pair of soccer shoes at the end of day 2
Romario, may not be smiling now, not that he is not enthused to get a pair of soccer shoes; he is enthused on one hand to get the shoes, but grossly disappointed on the other because camp has come to a finale. Although other kids enthusiasm was not captured on camera, I can assure you that they were very enthused about the camp; they all share great passion for this sport. Its their only sport – no baseball, basketball, etc – just soccer.
Over twenty kids got a pair of soccer shoes and there were several more who did not get. You can change that though! You don’t have to help all, you just have to put a pair of shoes on two feet – one kid. Your generosity might just get another intoxicating Romario-like smile from that one kid; and as for a smile, you will get one in your heart – pure and sweet – knowing that you are not just giving, but that your giving is for a worthy cause. Your giving does make a difference! A pair of shoes goes a long way!