NMAA To Provide Over 100 Soccer Balls To Kick For Nick Program
by NMAA Press Release
NMAA To Provide Over 100 Soccer Balls To Kick For Nick Program
Madaras with over 100 soccer balls on Saturday at 12:45 PM at the UNM Soccer
Complex prior to the Class 5A Boys state high school championship soccer
game.
Barbara Madaras was recently heartbroken after the program she set up as a
tribute to her nephew, who was killed in
there, was hit by thieves.
The program called Kick for Nick puts soccer balls into the hands of Iraqi
children directly from the hands of American soldiers. Someone stole the
collection basket she had set up to gather soccer balls.
The NMAA has collected soccer balls from New Mexico high school soccer
coaches during the last week in an effort to replace the stolen balls.
The soccer balls are destined for the Kick for Nick program named for
Madaras's nephew, Army Pvt. Nicholas Madaras, who was 19 when he was killed
helping defuse a roadside bomb in Baghdad in September 2006.
It's a nationwide program helping soldiers make friends with Iraq's children
on a common ground: soccer. Nick Madaras, a lifelong soccer player, coach
and referee, spotted the need and the opportunity on Baghdad's streets.
"(They would see) kids with rocks wrapped in a piece of cloth kicking it
around," Barbara Madaras said during a recent interview with KRQE TV news.
"They can go to the kids in the neighborhood where they're patrolling,
whatever environment they have where they have contact with children and
give them these balls to replace what little or nothing they have."
For more information regarding this announcement please contact Robert
Zayas, NMAA Director of Communications, at 505.977.5386.
