Our new Club is born in East Timor…..Welcome Manatuto Soccer Club; East Timor

This year our club has started a renewal project by replacing the old playing tops that have been handed down to teams over the past 20 something years. By the end of the next year it is hope that all Junior teams will be playing in the same top across all age groups. This year the junior age groups from Under 6 to Under 10 received the first lot of new playing tops and they have been well received. Next year the last remaining age groups will receive the tops making this the largest number of new strips the club has purchased in a long time. But with this came having an excess of old tops laying around the club with no purpose.

After multiple discussions about how these tops could be used it was decided that we would just donate them. We could not donate them here in Australia as there are other clubs that play in our colours and there is a town called Seaford in South Australia, so where could they go?

With a phone call to the office of Sonya Kilkenny MP and a few short days later we received a response that was well above our expectations. The shirts that were heading to the bin were now going to East Timor, wow right! All we asked was can you help us to donate them. After this call the shirts were gathered from the club and were taken away for sorting. In just over three weeks the shirts that had seen more games than expected and that had travelled all over the countryside had now been sorted, folded and packed into boxes. In total we packed 295 playing strips, 88 pairs of shorts, 30 pairs of boots, 6 goal keeping tops and 20 pairs of shin pads. All of this came to 13 boxes measuring 1 cubic metre.

As more details came to hand, we were informed that the donation would become the starting point for the development of a Sister City Soccer Club in East Timor.

With a great team effort by the Club, Friends of Manatuto, Chelsea Rotary (Donations In Kind), Sonya Kilkenny MP (Member for Carrum) and transport partner Swift Taxi Trucks and Couriers ( Club Sponsor) the boxes were picked up from Seaford and delivered to the Rotary Shed in West Footscray who packed them into a shipping container and sent them and other donations from the Rotary, Donations In Kind project on their way to East Timor on the 18^th of July 2019.

Robyn Erwin, President of the Friends of Manatuto, is travelling to Manatuto to deliver to the Manatuto Soccer Club a letter of friendship from our club, together with team photos, in what is hoped will be the start of a great relationship between the two clubs. Going forward with this exciting new milestone in our club’s history we encourage our members to support both clubs by sharing photos or letters of support on our Facebook page so we can send them to East Timor.

As part of our media coverage of this project to help raise awareness for organizations like Rotary, Donations In Kind and the great work the Friends of Manatuto, the club has featured in local print media and magazines. And back on Wednesday the 17^th of July some of the clubs junior members joined Club President Willie Lynn, Sonya Kilkenny MP, Friends of Manatuto member Suzanne and club member Andrew Whitehead to pose for one of the first photos that will be sent to East Timor and that will also be seen in the local paper.

If you would like any further information, please contact us via email: info@seafordunited.com.au

To support the organisations in this article and or for more information please head to the details as shown: Rotary Donations In Kind www.rotarydik.org and for the Friends of Manatuto www.austimorfn.org/friends-of_manatuto/

Seaford United Soccer Club, Celebrating 50 years, 1969 – 2019