Lately there has been a lot of negative publicity for the West End of Moline and there’s a group of people from the Floreciente neighborhood who are trying to make a difference keeping the kids busy in order to avoid getting involved with gangs or other negative things, Marina Varela says. The Boys & Girls Club and families living in the Floreciente neighborhood joined together to form four soccer teams, two youth for six to nine year olds and two junior teens and teens 10 and older. They are currently playing against each other at McCandless Park in a field that needs much maintenance.
Everything that has been accomplished has been with the help of volunteers and two forces working together, the Boys and Girls Club and the community. Antonio Almanza, one of the volunteer coaches, went door to door looking for kids that would be willing to join his team.
The original idea was to have the kids at the club play against each other because the cost to be in a league was not something that everyone would be able to pay.
The Club heard about Antonio’s team so the proposition was made to play against them and they have been doing this for a few weeks. The games are played within walking distance of the players’ homes so this has drawn not only many parents to go see their children play, but neighbors are showing up to show support as well. “We’ve had some pretty good turn outs and the kids have had a great time. The parents have been great about going to the games. This is awesome because for some reason it is very hard to get these parents to school meetings or club meetings but at the soccer games they are there and VERY proud to see their son or daughter try to make a goal,” Marina Varela said.
The places in the neighborhood where the kids can play are very limited. “If they are not at the club, they can play at Ericsson, which sits in between rival gangs, Amigos Park, which has nothing but outdated and un-kept equipment and is usually infested with known gang members. McCandless park sits way in the back of our neighborhood and now that the residence along with the club have put it to good use, we’d like to see someone help us put it back to at least a good condition,” Varela said.
“I don’t know if it was the city, but there are parts of the field that have big holes. We have had to make the actual playing field smaller in order to avoid having kids play on uneven ground. It looks like they put sewer lines or something and didn’t repair it to how it was. Possibly from the new houses built on top of the hill,” she said. Marina Varela’s husband cuts the grass so that the kids can have somewhere to play. “This is something the city should be doing,” Varela said.
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