Hi all,

We are representing a specific tournament team at the U12 level, comprised of 12 girls ages 10-12 in the American Youth Soccer Organization of Los Angeles. The tournament team fees are significantly higher than a regular spring league because each game involves extensive travel, paying for referees when volunteers aren't available and two sets of uniforms. In our case, each family was asked to pay $550 to participate in a total of 4 tournaments plus the cost of travel, hotels and all other needs to participate in a weekend of away games. After surveying our team members' families, at least half of them have expressed a need for financial assistance which ranges from $100-$400 per family. Therefore we have set a goal of raising $2000 to help those specific families pay for their costs. We worked a 12 hour shift selling snacks at games and raised $230 in doing so. While we plan to continue to do that hard work to raise funds, I also thought asking our friends and family members to contribute might help us reach our goals faster.