Kaneohe Shop Supplies Balls For Iraqi Kids

Wednesday - February 06, 2008
By Kerry Miller
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The 2nd Battalion 3rd Marine regiment will leave Kaneohe at the end of the month for Iraq, armed with 100 pieces of equipment that should help them relate to the youngsters on the ground.

A joint venture of ST Sports in Kaneohe, the Mayor’s Office and Outrigger Enterprises Group, “Operation Soccer Ball” is simply a gesture of goodwill,according to Hal Barnes, special military liaison to Mayor Hannemann.

“The kids just don’t have balls over there. They literally play with balled-up rags,” he explained.

The mayor and Outrigger officials presented the balls to the military in a Jan. 14 ceremony at Kapolei Hale - balls that Outrigger bought “at cost” from ST Sports, a longtime supplier of sports equipment to Windward youth leagues.


“I did it because I have a lot of military customers come in from K-Bay,” explained ST Sports owner Frances Sawai.“I’m happy to support the military at this time.”

Base commander Col. Mark Dungan is just thankful to all who made it happen.“I’m very appreciative of Mayor Hannemann for facilitating this donation. Both the city and Outrigger have been great supporters of the Marines and their families.”

As far back as November, the Mayor’s Office learned that the military was looking for soccer balls, and they knew who could make it happen: Outrigger CEO David Carey harbors an avid interest in soccer,and the company has a longstanding relationship with the military.

Max Sword, OEG industry affairs vice president, also a soccer fan, is a personal friend of Sawai, a Kaneohe businesswoman and mother of soccer stars herself.


“Basically someone at the mayor’s office got wind of (the soccer ball project), and the only people they knew who were into soccer were myself and David Carey,” Sword explained.

“So, I got a hold of Frances, whom I’ve known for many years. We got the balls at cost from her and went from there.”

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