Heart Heroes recently received a donation from a local soccer team in Lincoln, Nebraska called Onyx FC Shredders. Onyx raised money for Heart Heroes in a unique and fun way.

As part of a unique soccer club called Onyx Futbol Club, whose mission is “goals for the greater good”, the Shredders team signed up for an indoor futsal league hosted in Gretna, Nebraska. The league presented the opportunity to play between 6-10 games throughout the winter season. At each game the coaches kept track of every actual goal that was scored and also every time a panna was made. (A panna, or meg, is when you kick the ball in between an opponent’s legs.)For each goal and panna that was made the players’ parents pledged to pay $1.00 to be donated to an organization chosen by the team. In addition to the parents’ pledge, the Shredders also had a corporate sponsor, Shredding Solutions, who matched each dollar with another dollar.

The Shredders team chose to play for Heart Heroes. They were inspired to play for Heart Heroes because one of their own players has a younger brother who was born with a CHD.   After eight games the boys raised $210 for the Heart Heroes organization. That’s an average of nearly 13 goals and pannas per game!! Those players really played their hearts out for Heart Heroes and all kids with CHD!

When playing futsal, each player chooses an alias as their player name. Keeping that in mind, Heart Heroes would like to thank the following members of the Onyx FC Shredders team: (Clockwise from top left) Gavin Brester a.k.a. “G-man”, Justin Webert a.k.a. “Lil Weebs”, Justice Durante a.k.a. “Gold Cow”, Carson Stille a.k.a. “Meg Master 2000”, John Le, Jr. a.k.a. “Johnny Megziel”, Nolan Fuelberth a.k.a. “Nolo Goalno”, Sam Rosa a.k.a. “Sambo”, honorary team member and Heart Hero Teddy Rosa, and Andrew Johnson, a.k.a. “The Doctor”. (Not pictured, Brock Palmer a.k.a. “Brock ‘n’ Roll”).

Thank you Onyx FC Shredders for raising money for CHD awareness and for allowing us to continue our mission!