The Little Wildcats Soccer clinic was a huge success this year and at full capacity with 45 three- to five-year-olds getting to participate in soccer…many for the first time ever. Two sessions - one each on Saturday, January 15th and 29th - introduced the young boys and girls to the world’s most poplar sport in a fun and supportive atmosphere.

The clinic was presented by the U14 Carlisle CRUSH girls’ soccer team, and included lots fun activities including, among others, ghost busters, sharks & minnows and soccer bowling. Huge thanks go out to more than volunteers who helped organize and promote the event. Thanks also to Goodhue-Nolte Insurance for its generous donation that made it possible for every participant to go home with a brand new soccer ball.

If you were unable to attend or signed up after the clinic filled please remember to sign up early next year.

Spring (outdoor) registration for u6 players (age 4 or 5 as of August 1, 2010) is open until Feb. 5th without a late fee. Sign up at www.carlislesoccer.org. 

The Carlisle High School Girls Soccer team will be collecting gently used soccer gear to be donated to children in Afghanistan as a part of Operation Outreach, a group dedicated to helping children and families in that war-ravaged country.

Items of consideration are any old uniforms, articles of soccer clothing, used shoes, socks, old soccer balls, etc. Nancy Thorpe, a parent of one of our players and huge fan of our program and soccer in general, has agreed to collect the items at her home in the Easter Lake area of Des Moines.
Please feel free to call Nancy at 515-402-0157 to arrange a time to drop off your donations.

The due date for the collected items is Saturday, January 29th. For more information on how the donations will be distributed please visit the group’s website.

Our director of development, Lisa Wilson, will be focusing more of her efforts on writing winning grant requests so she’ll be giving up several duties that she’s been responsible for for the past couple of years. So we’re looking for your help.

We need volunteers to coordinate we’re trying to carve off tasks that she’s been doing over the past couple of years. I know you’ve always stepped up in the past so I’d be very confident putting this responsibility into your hands.

  These are the main responsibilities:

Concession stand manager(s) –  The hot chocolate, hot dogs, pop corn and other goodies help improve the game-day experience for everyone visiting our complex. It also helps us raise a good deal of money to fund enhancement of the complex. But it won’t work if we don’t have it open. So we need a team of volunteers to manage the concession stand. Specifically, the team will be responsible for:

• Clean the stand and set up for opening weekend
• Clean the stand and prepare for the off-season after the closing weekends
• Open and close stand each Sunday (and Saturday mornings if volunteers are available)
• Work with the volunteer director to get a copy of concession stand volunteers
• Order food weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the need (food is delivered to concession by our vendor and automatically billed through our account)
• Keep track of money box and provide proceeds to the Club Treasurer each Sunday afternoon

 Arts Festival Supervisor(s) - The Des Moines Arts Festival has been the single largest fundraiser for the Club for the past two years. We staff one of only four beer and wine tents at one of the city’s most popular summer events. It’s a fun time and a great money-maker for the Club. We need a couple of supervisors to lend their energy to lead a team of volunteers for this event. The specific duties include: 

• Attend Arts Festival meetings a few months prior to event (and you’ll usually get cool free stuff during the festival for attending)
• Work with the volunteer director to recruit volunteers and create work schedule for the three-day festival
• Ensure all first-time volunteers have attend the beer training session
• Maintain and collect proceeds from the tip Jars during the event (this is one of our best sources of collections from the event!)
• Keep an organized, staffed and stocked tent during event and
• Recruite and train shift managers so you don’t have to be there the entire time

Spaghetti Dinner Manager- The end-of-season spaghetti dinner is quickly becoming a tradition for the Club and for the community of Carlisle. It’s a simple way to bring together parents, players and members of the community while raising money. We get to take advantage of a generous donation from Barilla Pasta Company and other vendors, and have great records so it just requires someone to make it happen. Specifically, the spaghetti dinner manager is responsible for:

• Work with Club secretary to establish date and reserve a location
• Work with the director of Development to complete the request for donations from those who have given in the past (and others, if you have ideas)
• Work with the director of marketing communications to advertise to Club and the community via email, signs, Carlisle Citizen Newspaper and other media
• Work with the volunteers to create a volunteer schedule
• Supervise the preparation and serving of the dinner
• Submit the proceeds to the Club treasurer