Author:	Tylor Adcock
	Grade:	Senior
	School:	Kamiak
	Mascot:	Knights
	League:	Wesco
	Classification:	4A

The Goal of Life

Do you appreciate each day? What do you do with your 24 hours? Who do you benefit in 1440 minutes? What do you accomplish in the generous 86400 seconds you are given? These questions taunt us all and I can be the first to admit I build my own bars in my jail. Every day I get in my car at the same time, I find myself sitting in my seat at 7:20 every morning, I poison my third period class with my uniform sandwich smell, I walk to the same parking spot with the same person by my side after every school day, and I always seem to be suiting up for a practice quickly after that. Routine is my life. The average high school student’s life is routine. We take our lives for granted.

In Honduras, teens “between 15 and 19 years old are killed every day.” These kids don’t even go to high school, they don’t own a watch for their wrist to tell them where to be, they don’t know when their next meal could be, they don’t know if they will wake up next to their brother or sister, they don’t even know if they are going to see the light of tomorrow.

“For children living in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, drugs and death is a common thing.”

Gangs rule the city and the children are accustom to seeing dead bodies decorating the streets. These youthful kids are trying so hard to be accepted in a place where there are no parents or teachers to impress on the daily and it leads to carrying out their gangster’s crimes. Each time a kid steps into a gang, they commit kidnapping and killings which eventually lead to their own death.

All these terrible things that are happening are trying to be countered positively, and Kamiak is in the process of helping. On behalf of one of Kamiak's staff members' active encouragement, Mr. Eric Bergan, I am able to help assist his brother, Brent Bergan of the U.S. Coast Guard, by collecting soccer equipment for an organization called the Goal Of Life. Brent is in charge of port security of 6 to 8 South American countries and as a result he visits these places often and at some point came across this organization. A man named Luisito Lopez has started the Goal of Life to give kids a positive alternative to gang life. He is looking for donations to properly equip these kids for soccer; cleats, shin guards, balls, clothes, anything that could keep them engaged in this past time. Soccer is an escape for them, and in this high homicide-rated city, it is the least we can do to help them focus on something else.

As the giving season is coming around the corner, Kamiak High School is soon going to be collecting and giving soccer cleats and shin guards and soccer balls to Mr. Bergan for these kids down in Honduras. Our school of 2,500 students is unbelievably generous and I am super excited to get this fundraiser going. Last year we were able to build a school in India by collecting over $10,000 to provide materials. It changed us as a community, we saw what we were capable of and it was empowering and motivating. By January, Kamiak will be able to see the joyous faces of the Honduran kids as our U.S. Coast Guard personally hands them the tons and tons of equipment that we have collected.

For more information on the Goal of Life organization visit: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2014/honduras-soccer/

If you would like to contribute to Tylor and Kamiak's soccer gear drive, please contact cbonney@wiaa.com.