Rush WI West in La Crosse, Wisconsin hosted their annual REACH Friendlies event in mid August. The event allowed WI West players to prepare for the season as well as collect REACH donations to help Rush clubs across the world enjoy the game in Rush Blue too!

The event involved a community dinner, a Friendlies tournament, soccer tennis games and ended with a coaches game! One of the Rush WI West families has connections to a school in Zambia, so the club plans to get all the REACH gear that has been donated over the last two years to the kids in that Zambian village. 

In one day alone this year, the club gathered over 100 cleats, hundreds of socks, over 25 balls and 50 shin pads, and those numbers are not near the grand total. Families have started turning gear donations into the club in large numbers with the intent to use the rebates to fund the Rush WI West Scholarship Program and subsidize the shipping cost to Zambia. 

The REACH Program allows the Rush family to help one another in anyway that it can for the intent of building a stronger, more unified community within The Rush!

If you have questions about donating REACH gear (gently used soccer equipment, cleats and old Rush uniforms from a former uniform cycle), please contact the National REACH Director, Dan Highstead at [email protected]. 

Go Rush!