GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ethan King didn’t like what he saw.
“Kids would come with their own versions of soccer balls and they would just be trash bags wrapped up with twine,” he says.
The Grand Haven native’s 2010 trip to South Africa was eye opening to the conditions of those living in Third World countries. King felt bad, he felt like he had to do something, so he did.
"I gave my ball away in that original trip in 2010," he remembers. "The response was crazy [from the kids]. It was unbelievable, there were tears of joy."
And for King, a future player on the Buccaneers high school soccer team, there was a desire to do more. In fact, well before he started driving, he started a drive that eventually turned into his own non-profit organization. Under his leadership, “Charity Ball” has delivered thousands of soccer balls to over 50 different countries.
“For me at the age of ten 10, I was like, these kids need to have fun,” he explains.
Now 21 and a member of the Butler soccer term, King recognizes these countries also have plenty of other needs. He says a lot of them have been hit hard by the pandemic and they don’t have the resources to fight back like we do. So for now, he’s focusing his attention from soccer balls to saving lives.
"The country of Mozambique that we are doing our work in, is four times the size of New York, and they only have one testing center where people can go to be tested for the coronavirus,” King describes. “I think they are only had like four ventilators for people.”
But lack of equipment isn’t the only problem. King says there’s also a need for masks, and more importantly, a need to understand of how the disease spreads. To combat that issue, they’ve spend time educating local leaders on the importance of social distancing.
“There are people who will be never be thought about. They are on the margins of society,” King says. “I’m here to be a voice for the voiceless and speak on behalf of people who otherwise would be forgotten about.”
In the last several weeks, King and his team have raised seven thousand dollars. That’s good but he knows it’s not good enough.
“Will we ever bring society to everyone being on the same plane?’ he asks. “That’s really tough (but) we can still have a really big impact.
The battle never ends but no matter what, Ethan King won’t stop fighting.
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