Greg Roth / NSS
Seattle -- Sounders fans packed Kells Irish Pub and Restaurant in Pike Place donning soccer garb with drink in hand, Tuesday night. Normally fans would be there for a televised soccer match, but this time they were lured by a greater cause.
Seattle Scores, a not for profit group working with elementary school children to curb illiteracy, partnered for the second time with Seattle Sounders FC to hold a silent auction and ticket raffle to raise funds for the group at the pub.
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The event hosted numerous big name Sounders such as head coach Sigi Schmid, forward Nate Jacqua and defender Taylor Graham.
Seattle Scores uses soccer as a vessel to encourage literacy in students.
A Sebastien LeToux home kit was up for auction and a Nate Jacqua autographed MLS match ball was the raffle ticket prize.The players, Adrian Hanauer, Schmid and Sounders FC staff mingled for about an hour after the event to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.
Seattle Scores Executive Director Carole Kelley, who helped organize the event along with Sounders senior VP for business operations Gary Wright, thinks highly of the Sounders players not just in terms of what they do on the pitch but how they conduct themselves off of it.
"It is amazing to me,” Kelley said. “My husband is a sports writer. I have been around a lot of professional athletes the last 30 years. I have never met guys that are more approachable. These guys are still here talking with the fans, signing autographs and taking pictures. Other athletes would have been gone right after the event was over. At our last event Kasey Keller stayed until the bitter end."
Public events are being planned for every month.
All photos by Greg Roth, property of NSS. Do not redistribute without permission.
Reach Greg Roth at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
