You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
44 | August 22, 2019 | the new lenox patriot sports<br />
newlenoxpatriot.com<br />
LW West soccer players help pitch in for Appalachia<br />
Patrick Z. McGavin<br />
Freelance Reporter<br />
Lindsay Fortier is not<br />
your average 15-year old.<br />
Already, as the saying<br />
goes, she contains multitudes.<br />
She is a gifted musician<br />
who has played the<br />
violin for seven years and<br />
is a member of the orchestra<br />
at Lincoln-Way East.<br />
She is also a talented<br />
athlete who excels at goalkeeper<br />
for the Griffins. She<br />
played freshman soccer<br />
last year and was pulled up<br />
for a couple of junior varsity<br />
games.<br />
For five days in late July<br />
and early August, Fortier<br />
was subjected to a wholly<br />
different perspective.<br />
As a member of the Tinley-Frankfort<br />
Soccer Club,<br />
she was one of 24 players<br />
ranging in age from 13 to<br />
18 who took part in social<br />
service work in Pikeville,<br />
Kentucky, a socially impoverished<br />
region of Appalachia.<br />
Also taking part in the<br />
trip were Ty Arroyo, Zoey<br />
Arroyo, Mattea Arroyo,<br />
Caroline Beaudin, Katie<br />
Beaudin, Jessica Byrne,<br />
Madison Dziedzic, Anna<br />
Fritz, Nora Gaffney, Thea<br />
Gerfen, Emily Kedzior,<br />
Lauren Knollenberg, Tori<br />
Lucarelli, Meghan Majewski,<br />
Brooklyn Mortell, Ava<br />
Murray, America Navarett,<br />
Mary O’Boyle, Gerald<br />
Vetter, Mia Vetter and<br />
Sarah Vetter.<br />
Team members included<br />
students from Lincoln-<br />
Way East and Lincoln-<br />
Way West, as well as other<br />
schools.<br />
Giving back<br />
A region devastated by<br />
the opioid crisis, rapid demographic<br />
change and the<br />
decline of traditional factory<br />
culture, Pikeville is<br />
crushed by all sides.<br />
For young people like<br />
Fortier, it proved an illuminating<br />
lesson. She put<br />
in the hard work to make<br />
a difference. She even<br />
brought her violin, showing<br />
off her precocity.<br />
“When I think about<br />
soccer, my worry is about<br />
saving a shot or making<br />
sure I make the right pass,”<br />
Fortier said. “For the people<br />
that we interacted with,<br />
their worry is putting food<br />
on the table, being able to<br />
buy toothpaste or getting a<br />
paycheck.”<br />
Operating out of Tinley<br />
Park, the soccer club is a<br />
girls-only program that<br />
fields teams from U10<br />
through U19. The program<br />
was founded by Greg Beaudin<br />
and his partner Paul<br />
Toman in 2009, originally<br />
structured around the playing<br />
activities of their respective<br />
daughters, Katie<br />
Beaudin and Brianna Toman.<br />
Greg Beaudin’s wife,<br />
Dawn, is also a key figure<br />
in the club, part of<br />
the all-volunteer network<br />
that raises money in concert<br />
with Tinley Park and<br />
Frankfort-area businesses.<br />
The Kentucky trip is part<br />
of the group’s altruistic<br />
endeavors, following trips<br />
to Guatemala, hurricane<br />
relief aid, US Amputee<br />
soccer tryouts and helping<br />
the Feed My Starving<br />
Children program.<br />
“We are unique in that<br />
we are not a church,” Greg<br />
Beaudin said. “We are a<br />
soccer group. We worked<br />
with [the aid program Experience<br />
Mission Group]<br />
to execute the logistics<br />
of the trip. We have some<br />
strong soccer teams, but<br />
we are a little bit more centered<br />
toward social service<br />
than just awareness.”<br />
In Kentucky, the players<br />
painted a thrift store<br />
and also washed and<br />
painted playground equipment.<br />
They visited an assisted<br />
living and nursing<br />
home care facility, where<br />
many of the patients are<br />
suffering from early dementia<br />
or early onset Alzheimer’s.<br />
In many cases, the more<br />
direct action was the purest,<br />
direct interaction or<br />
communication.<br />
“A lot of the players I<br />
have been with for a long<br />
time,” Greg Beaudin said.<br />
“It is important for us to<br />
make sure these young<br />
women are aware that<br />
there is more than just<br />
soccer in the world. They<br />
need to broaden their horizons.”<br />
A new perspective<br />
O’Boyle is a 14-year old<br />
from Tinley Park who is<br />
about to begin her freshman<br />
year at Andrew. She<br />
is already a member of the<br />
varsity cheer program. A<br />
midfielder in soccer, she is<br />
a recent participant in the<br />
soccer club. She also took<br />
part in the Guatemala trip.<br />
“The minute we got to<br />
Kentucky, we unplugged<br />
our phones and kept them<br />
off the duration of the<br />
trip so there were no distractions,”<br />
O’Boyle said.<br />
“Being new, it was such a<br />
great bonding experience.<br />
We all slept in the same<br />
room on air mattresses on<br />
the floor.<br />
“My favorite part of the<br />
trip was hanging out with<br />
other kids at the YMCA.<br />
You could just play with<br />
them and they would forget<br />
about everything else<br />
going on around them. It<br />
was a great life lesson,<br />
which is something coach<br />
Greg always brings up. It’s<br />
not about winning and losing.<br />
It’s all about learning<br />
things different than soccer.”<br />
Making the trip all the<br />
Members of the Frankfort-Tinley Soccer Club, including players from Lincoln-Way<br />
West, gave “blessing boxes” to Appalachia residents, filled with donations from<br />
local businesses and families from Frankfort, Tinley Park, New Lenox and Mokena.<br />
Photo submitted<br />
more resonant and powerful<br />
was the realization of<br />
how closely related was<br />
the poverty of Pikeville<br />
and that of Guatemala.<br />
Mortell, a 14-year old<br />
from Frankfort and an incoming<br />
freshman at Lincoln-Way<br />
East, took part<br />
in both trips.<br />
She saw the contrast up<br />
close.<br />
“Compared to Guatemala,<br />
Kentucky doesn’t seem<br />
like the most interesting<br />
place,” Mortell said. “In<br />
going there, what you see<br />
is the difference between<br />
the very wealthy and<br />
the very poor. We drove<br />
through these neighborhoods<br />
with big houses, and<br />
then we’d go up the hill<br />
and find people with a lot<br />
less. There seemed to be<br />
nothing in between.”<br />
With other members<br />
from the club, Mortell<br />
visited a pregnancy center<br />
and assisted living facilities.<br />
The players also traveled<br />
to a local Walmart,<br />
and working off a budget,<br />
learned how to buy supplies<br />
and toiletries intending<br />
to last two weeks.<br />
Caroline Beaudin is the<br />
14-year old daughter of<br />
the group’s founders. In<br />
the summer of 2017, her<br />
older sister Katie was part<br />
of a mission in Honduras.<br />
She eagerly accepted the<br />
chance to go to Guatemala<br />
last year. In Kentucky, she<br />
took a direct intervention,<br />
wielding a hammer and<br />
nails in helping install a<br />
new floor.<br />
“Seeing how she lived<br />
compared to what I have<br />
back home, I realized I<br />
was very lucky,” Caroline<br />
Beaudin said.<br />
The young players already<br />
make tremendous<br />
commitments in time for a<br />
season that typically runs<br />
August to June. The experience<br />
goes beyond the abstract<br />
and into something<br />
particular and emotionally<br />
consequential.<br />
“Not only is there a bond<br />
on the field with the girls<br />
because they have gone<br />
through an experience,<br />
some of these life experiences<br />
together, it creates a<br />
whole person,” Greg Beaudin<br />
said. “I think it creates<br />
a strong, whole young<br />
woman in that they have<br />
the strength and they know<br />
more is out there. Doing<br />
things like this just creates<br />
more awareness of what is<br />
out there.”<br />
What seemed unquestionable<br />
was the players<br />
had an experience likely to<br />
stamp them for the rest of<br />
their lives.<br />
“I think it’s amazing,”<br />
Mortell said. “You are not<br />
going to be playing sports<br />
for the rest of your life.<br />
Doing something other<br />
than soccer gives me many<br />
more opportunities to connect<br />
with my community<br />
or connect with people I<br />
might never meet.”
Change language