Oct. 6, 2008

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara men's soccer team is beginning a donation drive, starting with the Wednesday, October 8 game against Cal State Northridge, to collect new or used sporting goods for children in Africa.

For the Gauchos' remaining five home games, there will be collection bins set up inside the main entrance at Harder Stadium where fans can donate any type of athletic equipment, clothes and shoes. Many of these young African athletes are playing sports without any equipment and anything that might seem old or useless to us would be a treasure for them. Some of the athletic equipment people use in the United States is completely nonexistent in their country.

"This is a great opportunity for the people in our community and our team to help out those less fortunate than us," Head Coach Tim Vom Steeg said. "Anything we get would be greatly appreciated. It can go a long way."

Fans are encouraged to bring new or used sporting equipment to any of the next five men's soccer home games - Wednesday vs. Cal State Northridge, Saturday, October 11 vs. UC Davis, Tuesday, October 14 vs. UC Riverside, Saturday, November 1 vs. UC Irvine and Wednesday, November 5 vs. Cal Poly.

From there, the men's soccer team will ship the equipment, clothes and shoes to Africa to help those less fortunate than ourselves. For more information, please contact the UCSB men's soccer office at (805) 893-6044.

For tickets to any of these UCSB games, please call (805) 893-UCSB or log on to www.UCSBGauchos.com.