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The seventeen players from Concordia University (Irvine, CA) and the fifteen players from Vanguard University (Costa Mesa, CA), along with five coaches and three staff members, spent nine nights on a tour of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Before leaving the USA each member of the delegation packed two bags, one of personal items for the tour and the other (not a pound under the fifty pound limit) full of donations. Everything from clothes to school supplies to paint brushes ended up in the donation pile. You can imagine the pile we constructed!
They began their tour with three nights in Managua playing in a mini tournament against the national teams from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and the Junior National Team from Nicaragua. The quiet beach town of San Juan del Sur was next on the agenda where both teams played another match against the Nicaraguan National Team.
According to the girls, the best part about the entire tour was the day “off” in San Juan del Sur. Each team, on that day, was assigned to various community service projects including; delivering school supplies to various schools, traveling to schools with the Mobile Library, cleaning and Painting the Centro de Salud (the local health clinic), planting trees and learning about different Eco-projects in the community, attending an ESL class for women in the community, and visiting the local animal shelter at the Stones and Waves Veterinary Clinic. It was impressive to see both groups approach their respective projects with an open mind and fully embrace the work they set out to do.
Following two awesome matches in San Juan del Sur, each one “packing the house” with over 500 spectators, the group loaded the bus for Costa Rica, where they would spend their last two nights and play their last two matches. Both teams played against the Costa Rican National Team and Junior National team in four exciting matches.
This was the first time Bring It Promotions brought a college team to Nicaragua and it was a huge success. It was really exciting to have the girls be so involved in life outside of volleyball and make such an impact on the community. We can only hope to have more teams doing the same thing in the future.
Stay tuned for more photos coming soon.
For more information, photos, and journals written by the girls please go to: http://www.cui.edu/athletics/women/volleyball/index_ektid8306.aspx
Vanguard
http://www.vanguard.edu/athletics/volleyball/index.aspx?id=14544
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