GFA Announces Partnership With Community Corporation

[February 12, 2017 – Harmon, Guam] – In a press conference held at the Guam Football Association National Training Center Saturday, Guam Football Association President Richard Lai and Dave Tydingco of Community Corporation officially announced a 2017 partnership aimed to directly assist Guam’s youth soccer clubs.

“Investment in youth soccer is truly an investment in the future of Guam,” Lai said. “Each year, close to 3,000 youth athletes look forward to playing in various youth soccer leagues at Guam Football Association, with over 150 volunteer coaches – new and experienced – motivating each and every one of them to succeed. Close to 100 referees also participate each week of the year’s youth league seasons, aiding coaches to foster an environment of competitiveness and instilling a disciplined approach to teamwork.

“It takes a community effort to provide all of these opportunities, making financial donations essential  from such enterprises as Community Corporation and Mega Bingo. The long-term success of these enterprises and companies that support youth sports such as soccer contributes immensely to the sustainability of programs that directly benefit future generations of responsible leaders and citizens in Guam,” added Lai, who prior to ascending to the GFA presidency was a youth coach with a club now known as Community First/Days Inn Dededo Soccer Club.

The sponsorship total amount is $60,000 over the course of one year, or $5,000 monthly to support youth clubs that participate in the Triple J Auto Group Robbie Webber Youth Soccer League twice yearly. Based on 2016 figures, clubs spent about $90,000 per season to participate in the youth league. With the sponsorship money from Community Corporation, clubs will save on team fees by as much as 50% annually.

Community Corporation is, according to its Web site, a non-profit organization committed to helping the Guam community through various charitable programs to meet its dual-pronged mission:

1) interest men and women in drug abuse rehabilitation to the end that crime, poverty, and misery may be lessened; and

2) engage exclusively in work calculated to improve the moral, mental, social and physical betterment of mankind

“Our focus is to invest in programs that prevent drug use and drug abuse as one of our primary objectives,” said Tydingco. “We want to let everyone know that although GFA is the first recipient, it will not only be the single recipient.

“We have a website, communitycorrporation.org, and what we will be doing shortly is accepting applications from other organizations that focus on developing youth sports on Guam. We want to assure that the entire community benefits, but we wanted to use a model organization like GFA as the first recipient,” Tydingco added.

Grant funds distributed by Community Corporation originate mainly from Mega Bingo proceeds from profits. Mega Bingo operates separately from Community Corporation and beneficiaries of its proceeds from profits.

According to Community Corporation’s Web site, the organization “raises funds through the Mega Bingo program in order to improve the moral, mental, social and physical betterment of mankind.

To that end, Community Corporation intends to evaluate and award grants, subject to the availability of funds, to organizations that promote the development of youth sports programs and assist in the education and prevention of drug abuse.”