"What we can do now for the disaster areas. Let's send some cheer to those areas with soccer."-With appeals like this, the planned Charity Soccer Event was held at the Tama Campus soccer ground on April 23.

This event, hosted by our university soccer team, went ahead despite the unfortunate rain with kids soccer players from primary and junior high school playing mini soccer games and wildly cheering at the game between Chuo and Waseda. Parents and locals also took part in a charity giant lottery with extravagant prizes, and their excited cheers led to an enjoyable day.

The event was organized by current soccer team members who took action by wanting to "do charity work" after seeing the immense destruction in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Taking a central role in activities was the main organizer, 4th year student in the Faculty of Law, Ippei Watabe (graduate of Toko Gakuen High School.) In the beginning of April he talked with the captain and 3rd and 4th year students about what charity activities could be done. At the start they only planned to do fund-raising activities, but general manager Ken Sato instructed them, "If you are going to do something, you need a concept. Go and have a good think about why you are doing this."

At the meeting, general manager Sato emphasized, "You have teammates from the affected areas. There are even some who have lost family, relatives and friends in the disaster. People close to you are facing that reality." He continued with the following words of encouragement for his charges, "Don't look at the disaster from the outside, don't do it 'because everyone is doing it,' now you must think about what you can do and for what before you head into the real world. Now is your chance to think."

After thinking it over, the players decided on a goal to "send soccer balls and uniforms" to children in the disaster zone who had all their soccer gear washed away in the tsunami. With limited time before the event and inundated with preparations, Watabe emphasized the results of the total effort, "I couldn't have done it by myself. We could realize this because the whole team pulled together."

On April 23rd, Chuo University soccer team members mingled with children from local soccer clubs in the morning and adults in the afternoon, and a charity game between Kanto University Football Association League Division I heavyweights, Chuo and Waseda, was held. Unfortunately Chuo lost the match 3-1, but players from both teams put on an impressive performance in the rain, pleasing those that had gathered to watch.

At the end of the charity match was the giant lottery everyone had been waiting for. Prizes included goods signed by famous players donated by J-League teams, with every prize being sought after, regardless if you are a fan or not. The participants held onto their lottery tickets and waited anxiously for the draw, and when the numbers were called out, huge cheers of joy and dismay rang around, making it an extremely lively lottery.

At the event, a total of 118,600 yen was raised. In addition to the 1,418,859 yen raised in street collections (seven times from April 19 -29) at the four stations in the Tama area (Hachoji, Tachikawa, Tama Center, Takahatafudo), a total of 1,537,459 yen was sent to the Tohoku Football Association in the form of balls and uniforms.

(Student reporter Miyuki Nozaki, 4th year student in the Faculty of Law)