Perry Hall United Methodist Church

Betty Shock heard about our project earlier this year and was determined to help Eric meet his goal. Being an incredibly giving and kind person, Betty decided to approach Perry Hall United Methodist Church where she is a long time member. They very kindly agreed to help. Fellow member Bunny Barker became involved and began looking for companies who would help with this effort. Bunny is the person responsible for contacting Sports Authority. She then put us in contact with Alice Clement of Sports Authority, who in turn offered to ship soccer balls to Iraq for $10.00 each (see our article dated 10/04/06).

The ladies were able to place an article in their church bulletin in November 2006 titled Soccer Balls for Iraq Children, which requested donations. To our amazement as well as theirs, the Perry Hall United Methodist Church collected a total of $591.00 for this purpose! They also donated a soccer ball which will be shipped with the next group of donated balls. We would like to thank all of the members of Perry Hall United Methodist Church for their generous donations. Special thanks to Betty Shock and Bunny Barker for your incredible efforts and thoughtfulness. The Iraqi children will be so pleased to receive the soccer balls your donations will purchase!

Haverford Soccer Club Collection

Mimi Halligan and her good friend Jonell from the Haverford Soccer Club near Philadelphia, PA collected and sent equipment to Iraq for Eric's Goal!

Mimi contacted us through our e-mail address and offered to help. I truly enjoyed communicating with Mimi over the past month, she is such a caring and generous person. Mimi and Jonell did a fantastic job and sent a total of 35 soccer balls, 5 pr of cleats, a load of T- shirts and cones too!

With their help we are climbing towards the 3,000 mark. We are now at 2,867 soccer balls!

Thank you Mimi, Jonell and the Haverford Soccer Club for supporting our troops and helping the Iraqi children!

Donations from The Odyssey School

Cheryl Durgin, who is Eric's cousin, teaches at The Odyssey School in Stevenson, Maryland. Cheryl and the students at her school started collecting soccer balls for Eric's Goal a couple of months ago. The children were very involved, making posters to place in the hallway, writing letters to companies to request donations, and asking friends and family for new or used soccer balls and or equipment for the Iraqi children. Although their original goal was for 50 soccer balls, the students far exceeded that amount. The Odyssey School actually collected 119 soccer balls! They also received donations of 2 pair of soccer shorts, 1 pair of soccer pants and $50.00 toward shipping costs!

While visiting Eric in Tennessee earlier this month, Ginny video taped a short message from Eric to the students. Eric had planned to visit the children at their school but he is unable to be in Maryland at this time. So Virginia and I added to Eric's video and created a little power point presentation about Eric's Goal and about all of you, our generous contributors! The students and staff were so welcoming and helpful. One student took photographs and another handled the technical aspects of our slide show. The students enjoyed learning more about Eric and his goal. They especially liked the message Eric gave at the end of the presentation.

Afterwards, a group of students wheeled out two huge boxes of soccer balls and presented them to us! It was fantastic. We continued to be amazed by the generosity of our fellow citizens, young and old, from near and far. It warms the heart to know that this generation of children care so much about others and will do their best to make an Iraqi child's life a little better!

Many thanks to Cheryl and to all the staff and especially the students of The Odyssey School! Our thanks to Cheryl also for volunteering her time and effort to help pack up the soccer balls for shipment to Iraq.

Federal Tax Exempt Status Granted

Eric's Goal, Inc. has been granted Federal Tax Exempt Status by the IRS! As advised, we have held off applying for Maryland State Tax Exempt Status until we received the Federal Status. Soooo, our next step is to complete the paperwork to apply for State Tax Exemption, which we will begin this month.

We will keep you posted on our progress!

Old Stevensville Barber Shop and Easton Volunteer Fire Department Donations Take The Total to 2,713 Soccer Balls!!!!

Between sending the 108 soccer balls dropped off at her shop in Stevensville and driving down to Easton to pick up 40 more soccer balls at the Easton Volunteer Fire Department, Eric's Aunt Shirley isn't getting much rest lately! She is getting donations faster than she can send them to Iraq!

The Eastern Shore of MD donations bring us to a new total of 2,713 soccer balls thus far!

Our thanks to Shirley Crook for her constant work for the children of Iraq. Shirley is incredibly kind and sweet and totally dedicated to helping with Eric's Goal. We can't possibly thank her enough for all she does. Shirley's attitude is so positive that it rubs off on eveyone around her!

Many thanks to Shirley and to all of our contributors on the Eastern Shore of Maryland!!!!

Towson Unitarian Universalist Church

Our thanks to Joyce Duncan, DRE and all of the children at Towson Unitarian Universalist Church for your donations to the Iraqi children. I was not able to meet Joyce, but I did meet two of her very special co-workers; Mona Scott, Office administrator, and Martha Clasby, bookkeeper (pictured above). They kindly assisted me in carrying out the soccer balls and loading them into my car. We counted up 64 soccer balls, 2 pair of soccer shoes, 4 net bags, 1 first aid kit, several coloring books, chalk & crayons! The children wrote very positive messages on the balls for the Iraqi children. Some favorites are; "Play", "Good wishes", "Hi Friends", "I hope you like playing", "Have fun", "Goal!!!", "I'm 6" and "Special dumpling I love you". Reading these messages warmed our hearts and we hope it will do the same for the Iraqi children. Many thanks for your donations and happy thoughts for other children!