Local teen helps young soccer players 'score for the poor'

ARLINGTON, VA (Catholic Herald) - For the past five years, local eighth-grader Emily Lodge has organized a soccer camp to raise money for the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Just because you're young doesn't mean you can't make a difference.

Just ask Emily Lodge, an eighth-grader from St. Timothy School in Chantilly who, for the past five years, has run her own soccer camp to raise money for the Little Sisters of the Poor St. Joseph's Home for the Aged in Richmond.

Emily was inspired to start the camp, which she named Score for the Poor, when she was only 9 years old.

"I was at the beach and I was bored," said Emily, who's now 14 and planning on attending Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington next fall. "I had just gone to my first soccer camp and the Little Sisters of the Poor had just come to my church and they were asking for donations, so I put all that stuff together and came up with the camp."

Emily's mother, Michelle, didn't take her daughter's idea seriously at first.

"I thought this was something that wouldn't quite happen," Michelle said. "I thought she'd let it drop, but she followed through."

The first year, the camp had 12 kids -- all Emily's cousins.

"Everybody showed up ready to go with sneakers and cleats on, and then the next year, (Emily) said, 'Oh we're gonna do it again,' and I kinda went, 'Are you sure?'" Michelle said. Ever since then, the camp has grown every year, with more cousins, friends and neighbors getting involved. Last year, there were about 50 people at the camp, including 10 older kids working as counselors.

The camp runs for two hours a day for five days and takes place on a baseball field in Reston. It's open to children ages 2 to 10.

For the week, campers pay $30, half of which pays for a tie-dye T-shirt and a trophy for each player. The other half is a donation that goes directly to the St. Joseph's Home.

"The first year, we raised $100," said Michelle. "It started really low, but it's gotten bigger, and now a lot of family members from out of town will send checks in honor of Score for the Poor."

Last year, the camp was able to raise $1,000 for the St. Joseph's Home. The year before, it was $800.

A few years ago, Emily asked campers to bring paper supplies to camp with them, something the Little Sisters of the Poor had requested in their newsletter. Later, the family went down to the St. Joseph's Home to deliver the supplies to the sisters in person.

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"They were so wonderful," Michelle said. "When you go down there and see the house and what a nice place it is, it really makes you feel good about giving to it and helping."

Last year, three representatives from the Little Sisters of the Poor, including Sister Josephine Campbell, spent a day at Emily's camp.

"It was a lot of fun," Emily said. "Sister Josephine played kickball with us and then they talked to all the kids about what they did."

"The kids ran the bases with her and were all cheering for her," said Michelle. "She's definitely got a little kid in her."

For Emily, running the camp each year has been a learning experience. She does most of the planning herself, separating the children into groups, finding age-appropriate activities for them and keeping things on a set schedule.

"She does all the legwork," Michelle said. "I give her a little help in dividing the groups up by ages, but she comes up with the schedule and she has people rotating to different places."

In addition to planning out the campers' activities, Emily has also developed a Web site for her camp, scoreforthepoor.com.

Emily, who has been playing soccer since 1999 and has been on a travel team since she was in third grade, said she hopes to continue Score for the Poor for as long as she can.

"The camp is something I really enjoy and I look forward to it every year," she said.

This summer's camp will be held the second week in August and, according to Emily, it could have the biggest turnout yet.

Even though the camp has grown and improved over the years, Emily remains modest about her involvement.

"I do the organization, but really, the family kind of comes together," she said. "Without them, it wouldn't work. It's a group effort."

That kind of humility is something she recommends to other people hoping to lend a helping hand. While they may have big dreams of changing the whole world, it's better to keep things simple in the beginning, she said.

"Whatever you set out to do, it's gonna start small," Emily said. "But everything you do will make a little bit of a difference, so just trying to do something will help."

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Republished by Catholic Online with permission of the Arlington Catholic Herald , the official publication of the Diocese of Arlington, Va. (www.catholicherald.com).