Local Support with the Sanneh Foundation

When a devastating earth quake hit Haiti in 2010, soccer star Tony Sanneh was playing for the LA Galaxy. Sanneh and a few other team members got together to go down for a relief mission.

It was on that mission in Haiti that Sanneh discovered his passion for giving back, and much like Starkey Hearing Foundation, that includes helping in his native Twin Cities community as well as around the world. So it made for an instant connection when Sanneh and his foundation connected with us in 2013.

Since then, Starkey Hearing Foundation has been supporting local Sanneh Foundation initiatives. Including most recently in mid-July, when more than 7,500 youth gathered in Saint Paul to take part in soccer camps hosted by the Sanneh Foundation.

Starkey Hearing Foundation was thrilled to support a portion of the camps dedicated to the participation of elementary-aged kids who have varying levels of hearing loss.

The camps helped the kids discover more about physical fitness by learning to how to play soccer while interacting with young peers who have hearing loss.

Our team was happy to visit the camps on July 19. While there, Congresswoman Betty McCollum spoke to the great work that the camps are doing in the community and helped to kick off what would be an exciting day of learning new soccer skills, making new friends and having fun.

One of the things that stood out to us at the camp was the large amount of communication taking place. Whether through audible communication, American Sign Language or very often both at the same time, it was great to see so many children with hearing loss constantly communicating.

“It’s all about accommodating the different needs of children,” Sanneh, said. “We work to create an environment that makes them all feel included, which helps them interact. That makes the activities more fun as well as ultimately leads to better learning.”