It's your lucky day (since obviously you are all waiting for my blog posts, right?), and I am posting twice! I had to write this blog for my internship's website, so I thought I would update you with the very same blog.
Last weekend was the annual 24-hour Crime Prevention soccer tournament at the Chris Campbell Memorial Field in Khayelitsha. This is the biggest event for the organization, and it promotes choosing sport over crime in the township. I was definitely anticipating this day from the months of preparation, the stories I’ve heard from the past years, the pictures, and much more. I am not going to lie, I was a bit nervous going into it because I don’t remember ever purposely staying up for a full 24 hours straight… (Not to mention that the date crept up on me pretty quickly…) But I did come prepared with Coca Cola and even some Red Bull, in case I got really desperate for energy.
My day started at 6:30 am in order to pack ample food and clothes and to get to the field by 8:00 am. When we got there, the excitement was already beginning, as the Coca Cola truck was there to set up their stage. They brought a DJ for the majority of the event, and it’s a huge accomplishment to be recognized by someone as big as Coke! Once we got there, we started setting up the AMANDLA flags and random odd jobs around the field.
The day would not have been possible without all of our sponsors and volunteers. We were lucky enough to not only be sponsored by Coca Cola who provided drinks such as Powerade, but also Umbro who provided prizes for all the winners, and Shoprite who provided food for hundreds of participants. I also have to mention that some local professional soccer stars joined us to hand out prizes and speak to the participants. And we also had police present throughout the entire event, just in case. Not to mention all of the referees and scorekeepers! This list could go on and on.
The event commenced with a few speakers including the mayor of Cape Town, the Provincial Minister of Community Safety, and of course, our very own Florian Zech. Once the speakers finished, we started the Under 13 Boys’ tournament, 240 participants total with 32 teams. Within the first hour, we had over 300 kids at the field! Next up were the Junior Girls with 8 teams and 67 people total. Then came the Senior Girls with another 8 teams and 72 participants. Hours and hours of soccer later, we began the Under-16 Boys’ tournament with 32 teams and 270 participants.
Sometime that night (to be honest, the time all kind of blended together and I can’t remember what exact time anything happened), the boys’ tournament ended, and we prepared for the men’s tournament. This tournament ran from about 10:00 pm until 9:00 the next morning, and had 48 teams and 383 total participants. This meant we would need liters and liters of soup (in the biggest pots I’ve ever seen in my life) and literally countless loaves of bread (we handed out over 400 loaves of bread total during the entire event!), and liters and liters of coffee, so we all worked together and made this run smoothly. [Side note: South Africans LOVE sweet coffee… and by sweet, I mean the same amount of sugar, if not more, than coffee, so it’s more like hot sugar water with a little bit of coffee flavoring.]
Throughout the event, Leigh and I embraced our role as interns/volunteers and did countless random jobs (you’re welcome, Amy!), but we made sure we had the most fun possible doing each and every one. We worked with our new friends at Shoprite, handing out food and dancing/playing London Bridge the entire time. The kids thought we were crazy, but we had a blast. Everyone managed to stay awake by consuming large amounts of caffeine, but mostly just by staying busy, and making the best out of every moment, and of course by laughing and dancing unnecessarily pretty the entire time. Needless to say, by the time we got home at about 10:30 Sunday morning, we were more than ready for some serious sleep!
At the end of the day, I think the tournament was a huge success. I had more fun than I imagined, and feel closer to every single member of the staff. I have tremendous respect for what everyone who works at AMANDLA has done to make this day possible (and most of them are only in their mid-20’s!). I am very lucky to have been involved with this, especially since I’ve never been involved in such a big event before, and it will definitely stand out as one of my best memories from my time in Cape Town. The statistics speak for themselves for the success of the event:
128 Teams
32 Under-13 Teams = 240 participants
8 Junior Girls Teams = 67 participants
8 Senior Girls Teams = 72 participants
32 Under-16 Teams = 270 participants
48 Men’s Teams = 383 participants
2173 Total People in Attendance throughout the day
1032 active participants
1141 spectators
292 games played during the whole 24 hours of soccer!!!
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