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January 25, 2009

Mankato soccer jerseys find second life

By Tanner Kent

MANKATO — Imagine the life of a Mankato United youth soccer jersey.

For one season, a Mankato youngster wears United’s familiar greens and whites with hometown pride. A year’s worth of practices, games and tournaments are expended into its fabric. That jersey knows the same competitive joys and sorrows as the heart that beats beneath it.

But what becomes of that jersey next season? To a younger brother or sister? To the recycling bin or neighborhood thrift store? To the trash heap?

What if, instead, that jersey could find a second life with a handball team in remotest northern Bangladesh? Or maybe with a youth soccer team in a nearby Hindu village?

If that were the case, said Muhit Rahman, the world would be a better place.

“With all the stuff going on in the world and with the sort of divisions that exist,” said the Cincinnati-based founder of a nation-wide jersey donation program, “I just believe that, in the karma of the universe, something good happens when people share.”

Kari Halbur, fundraising coordinator for Mankato United’s many youth soccer teams, said parents and board members were exchanging the typical uniform laments — too many and too expensive — when someone suggested recycling them. Problem was, no one knew of any organizations that collected and re-distributed used soccer uniforms.

So Halbur did some searching online and came across Rahman’s Web site: bangladeshrelief.org. Within hours of sending the email, Halbur was on the phone with Rahman to coordinate a shipment.

Within days, the jerseys were on a trans-oceanic flight to Dhaka. And just days after that, United’s familiar greens and whites were flashing through the rice fields and dirt lots of Bangladesh.

“It’s a great program,” Halbur said. “And it should be an ongoing partnership.”

Rahman, who was born and raised in Bangladesh, delivered the uniforms himself in early January, along with other donations he’d collected from across the United States.

He gave one set of Mankato United uniforms to a small Hindu enclave in his birth village of Dolla. Rahman said that religious divides still exist between local Hindus and Muslims and that he wanted the donation to promote tolerance and acceptance.

The other sets of Mankato jerseys were given to a handball team at Panchagarh Government High School, located in the remote northern territories of Bangladesh. Rahman said his father was a headmaster at the school decades ago and that his “earliest memories as a human being date to that place.”

“All the students were thrilled,” Rahman said. “That very afternoon, they were out playing in their jerseys.”

For those on the western side of the swap, it’s heartwarming to know that halfway around the globe, United’s familiar greens and whites are still being worn with pride. And for those on the other side of the swap, it’s heartwarming to know someone cares.

Despite a significant language barrier and an 11-hour time difference, Titumir Sarkar — teacher and coach of the Panchagarh handball team — had this to say about the donation when reached by phone:

“Students (are) very glad for uniforms. ... Thanks to you. We enjoy.”

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