Donated Caswell football equipment on its way to Yucatan
Nov. 14—Mario Valdes, from MERGE Ministries in the Yucatan of Mexico, works to help about 1,000 kids there play football.
While he has enthusiastic players he lacks decent equipment for them.
Valdes talked with Libby Englehorn, a minister at Crossview Covenant Church in North Mankato that has partnered with MERGE before. Englehorn's husband called Neil Kaus, youth sports director for Caswell Park.
"It was great timing," Kaus said. "I had a bunch of equipment I was about to throw out."
The result is Valdes is heading out on a long drive to the Yucatan with a bus filled with about 100 helmets, 300 pairs of pants and 50 shoulder pads.
Kaus said that while the equipment is perfectly usable he, under safety laws, has to dispose of helmets when they are 10 years old. And every few years he swaps out some of the pants and shoulder pads for new ones.
"They can't get equipment in Mexico right now, so this worked out great," Kaus said. "We have all good Riddell-brand stuff."
Kaus said that the equipment and uniforms don't last as long in the Yucatan because of the heat and humidity.
When the project got underway, Englehorn started working on a way for Valdes to get the equipment to Mexico. Her husband, Dan, teaches in St. Peter and he contacted 4.0 School Service, a bus company in St. Peter and asked if they had a bus for sale. "They gave us a great deal, $2,500 for a minibus they had, so we bought it," Libby Englehorn said.
She's now raising funds to pay for the bus, some maintenance they had done on it and for gas for the long trip. Valdes will transfer the bus title at the Mexican border and his organization will keep it to drive kids to games.
"He's got a long trip," Kaus said. "Once he gets to the border, he still has 36 hours to drive down to Playa del Carmen," which is south of Cancun and north of the Belize border.
Crossview also will get a little use from the bus. In December, 20 volunteers from the church will be in that area of Mexico doing a service project and will use the bus to get around.
Kaus, who's been with Caswell for three years, said the youth football program is huge. "We have 1,050 kids, 68 teams." Teams include kids as young as ages 4 and 5 doing flag football, as well as several teams playing tackle football.
He said fields are busy from Labor Day to mid-October, with thousands of players, parents and others at games.
"My inventory of equipment is $350,000. It's a huge program. The money comes from about 40 sponsors who donate money to Caswell Youth Football.
Kaus also oversees tennis, soccer and other youth programs at Caswell. He's hoping the city will be successful in securing state funding for a new indoor rec center at Caswell so they can add basketball, volleyball and other indoor programs.
"There's a huge need for more gyms locally."
