Soccer Tournament To Fund AIDs Prevention In Africa

While many teenagers will be spending the holiday weekend on the beach or at cookouts with their friends lamenting the end of another summer/the start of a new school year, Owen Diana, a 15-year old soccer player at Wellesley High, will be organizing a 24-hour charity soccer tournament to help teach AIDS prevention to children in Africa.

Owen has been working hard to recruit players in the tournament, which will take place at Wellesley's Hunnewell Fields beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 3, and continuing until 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4. He's enlisted some top-notch players to help him in his recruiting efforts, including the New England Revolution's Chris Tierney, who is also a Wellesley native, and the Boston Breakers' Leslie Osborne. Participants can sign up at www.24hoursofsoccer.com. Anyone ages 4th grade and up can register to participate. 

One-hundred percent of the proceeds from Owen's "24 Hours of Barefoot Soccer" tournament will go to Grassroot Soccer - a New England-based charity that uses soccer to facilitate its educational mission. GRS was founded by a former professional soccer player who was born in Scotland, played in Africa, and later went to medical school at Dartmouth.  Through this program, the organization has educated more than 300,000 kids about AIDS prevention since 2002.

The tournament is a unique concept and will feature 24-hours straight of 3-on-3 barefoot soccer games. The players will be playing barefoot to play in solidarity with African children who can't afford shoes. The event is open to all players 4th grade to adult.  Games will be small-sided and coed, with younger players playing with kids their own age. Owen is asking for a minimum donation of $25 per participant -- that's how much it costs to keep one African child in the Grassroots Soccer program for a year.

For more information, visit: www.24hoursofsoccer.com and www.grassrootsoccer.org.