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Rockwood Summit Student Launches Worldwide Soccer Donation Program

Alexander Kehn is honored as one of two youth volunteers in Missouri for his efforts in collecting 25,000 pieces of soccer equipment for needy teams nationally and worldwide.

Name:  Alexander Kehm, 16, Fenton

School: Rockwood Summit High School

Family: Alex is the son of Bonny and Dennis Kehm. He has a sister, Flynn, 8, and two brothers, Fletcher, 5, and Henry, 8 months.

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Accomplishments: Named one of two youth volunteers in Missouri to receive the 2011 Prudential Spirit of Community Award, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. Alex will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where he will join other honorees from each state and the District of Columbia. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2011 at that time.

Alex, a junior at Rockwood Summit High School, initiated a community-wide drive that has collected more than 25,000 pieces of new and gently used soccer equipment for underprivileged children in St. Louis and around the world. He was encouraged by his parents to help others since he was very young, saw an ad one day for the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Passback program, which encourages organizations and individuals to donate soccer equipment for kids who cannot afford it.

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“I immediately wanted to help,” said Alex, a soccer player himself. “After contacting the foundation and finding out there was no one in the St. Louis area doing anything like this, I knew what I needed to do.”

What he did was establish "Fenton Passback," an organization that has involved businesses, teachers, community leaders, news media, and other groups throughout the St. Louis area in an ongoing effort to collect soccer balls, jerseys, shorts, cleats, shin guards, bags, and other gear. To get the word out, Alex created brochures and flyers, gave speeches, visited athletic equipment stores, and created a website at www.fentonpassback.com.

"I called coaches, friends, friends' moms, any body who could help" Alex said. "And after I made the calls, word got out and people started calling me. Once you start volunteering, you will discover how rewarding it can be."

He also garnered publicity by helping the U.S. Soccer Foundation break the world record for the longest chain of shoes, tying together 11,904 soccer cleats at a national coaches convention.

Alex so far has donated more than 25,000 pieces of equipment to a Boys & Girls Club in St. Louis; a mission for girls in East Africa; a 16-city soccer league for homeless men, women and youth; and a soccer academy that provides training to needy kids in West Africa.

Alex played CYC and indoor soccer in grade school at Sacred Heart Elementary and for two years at Rockwood Summit.


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