Quota’s Soccer Team in Florida

The community of Coral Springs-Parkland, Florida, learned a lot about Quota during the 2002 soccer season, when the local Quota club sponsored a team. Quota provided a coach—club member Radcliffe Getten—and selected the player age group and one player. The club unanimously chose ten-year-olds and placed an enthusiastic deaf boy named Travis on Quota's team.

Above: "Coach Rad" Getten is a member of QI of Coral Springs-Parkland as well as coach of the club's youth soccer team.

"We thought this was the perfect service project for our new club," says Charter President Laura Lahman. "Sponsoring a team with a deaf player teaches young children to accept our differences and raises awareness of deafness in our community."

The Quota team.

Promoting Inclusion
President Laura attended the first team practice and talked to parents about Quota International and their club's local service goals. Quota provided team uniform shirts that proudly displayed the name of Quota International of Coral Springs and Parkland, and club members volunteered to provide orange slices for half-time player refreshments.

"Quota members showed up periodically at games simply to cheer on the boys and experience that overwhelming sense of pride that we feel when we know we are helping to change attitudes by promoting inclusion," adds President Laura.

Above and below: Quota spirit in action.

From Outsider to Encourager
Club members say Travis, the young deaf player, began as an outsider on the team. He was different from the other boys, and his mother needed to stand on the sidelines to give him special instructions in sign language in order for him to play. But less than half-way into the season, communication among players became easy and, says President Laura, "Travis quickly became everyone's best friend!"

President Laura says Travis brought a special quality to Quota's little team—"joyfulness and encouragement—even when we weren't winning. He praised his team members with a big smile and pat on the back when they made a terrific play and showed an equal amount of compassion when one of them got hurt."

Celebrating Quota success.

Quota's team made it to the second round of playoffs at the end of the season. In celebration, the club hosted a pizza party and provided each player with a trophy.

The club publicity benefits were tremendous: Quota's name on uniforms and scoreboards brought many opportunities to talk about Quota to interested folks. Notes Laura: "We sincerely believe this will bring our club some recruitment opportunities."

• For more on the Coral Springs-Parkland Quota club's efforts to promote awareness of hearing problems, click here.
  
  
• The Coral Springs-Parkland club won third place in the We Share Foundation's 2003 International Photo Contest. To view the club's winning photo, click here.

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