CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy Foundation set lofty goals for their 20 for Twenty community service initiative honoring the Galaxy’s 20th season and exceeded them with flying colors.
The 20 for Twenty initiative set out to accomplish 20 community service events around the Los Angeles area, but this goal soon expanded as the Galaxy Foundation achieved a whopping 125 events by year’s end.
“We take great pride in being part of the Los Angeles community,” LA Galaxy president Chris Klein said. “Lauren Nowinski, who runs our foundation, has not only done an amazing job of integrating our staff and players, but also different partners so that we can have an impact in the city where we work and play.”
“We wanted to show how active we were off of the pitch, not just simply through monetary donations at our games,” added Nowinski. “We worked with groups that we hadn’t worked with in the past to get large-scale volunteer events on the books to allow anyone associated with the club to participate.”
The final numbers from the 20 for Twenty initiative were remarkable as a total of 406 volunteers completed a staggering 1,600 hours of service; additionally, the LA Galaxy Foundation donated over $500,000, including 275 material donations to groups across Southern California. In addition to the contributions, the Foundation also hosted free LA Galaxy community soccer clinics for 1,212 children in the Los Angeles area.
However, it wasn’t all about the financial donations or the service hours, as the foundation also spearheaded the team’s Special Olympics Unified squad that competed after a pair of matches involving the Galaxy and FC Dallas earlier in 2015.
“From our players, to our staff, to our fans… we’re representative of the city of L.A.,” Klein said. “We’ve got different cultures and backgrounds who spend Saturdays at StubHub Center to watch our team play, but we understand that there’s a lot more going on in this city and our world that affects people on a daily basis. It’s an honor to play our small part in the bigger picture of impacting the lives of kids and people around us.”
And as the foundation looks ahead to 2016, even more, is planned to meet—and exceed—the work that was done last year.
“We’re out there every single day impacting our community,” Klein said. “We’ve got a lot of goals on the field, but a lot of goals off of it as well. Our relationship with our community is front and center and part of everything that we do.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
