Since February 10, James Milligan's name has been in every edition of the Undercurrent. The Grade 9 IPS student organized Spot the Ball, a contest that was a lot of fun to play as well as an effective fundraiser. Milligan is an avid soccer player and has chosen the topic 'The beautiful game: the sport that changes lives' for his masterworks, a year-long project where students explore a subject they care about. In an effort to share his love for soccer, Milligan set out to raise money to purchase soccer balls for underprivileged children.
As Milligan prepares for his masterworks presentation to the community scheduled for Wednesday, June 13, at 1 to 2 p.m. at Cates Hill Chapel, he released the results of the contest and said, "I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who helped make Spot the Ball a success. Thanks go to the Undercurrent for the space, help and encouragement, to Deb Stringfellow for the great photos (no one could ever tell where the ball had been), to all the businesses on Bowen Island who generously donated prizes and let me have my red and white boxes everywhere, and to all of you who played and all of you who encouraged others to (thanks Mum)! And thank you to my dad for coming up with the idea."
Milligan is happy to report that the final count was $1,444. "That will buy a load of Fair Trade soccer balls bought from Social Conscience Fair Trade Sports Balls and make a lot of kids happy," he said. "I will be buying the first batch next week and am sending them with Conrad Heath to a school in a very poor area of Cusco, Peru.The next two shipments will be hand-delivered to Costa Rica and Africa, and I am still researching other places where I can be sure they arrive safely."
