Middle Gate Student Scores A

TD With ‘Footballs For Freedom’

Nicholas Fatse, a 10-year-old fourth grade student at Middle Gate Elementary School, loves sports, especially football. This past November, he launched an initiative that celebrated his passion for football in a most unusual way.

Nicholas is the founder of “Footballs for Freedom,” a highly successful campaign that allowed scores of US troops serving abroad in Iraq to enjoy their own games of football by the time Super Bowl XXXIX arrived!

“Footballs for Freedom” began modestly enough when Middle Gate teacher John Sullivan asked his students to write a letter to Navy Seals station in Iraq.

Nicholas proposed enclosing a football with his letter. He believed his academic performance improved when he had the opportunity to relieve stress with a quick game of football on the playground.

“These soldiers need to have some fun and they to know that we are thinking of them,” he explained to his family, which included his 12-year-old sister and future “Footballs for Freedom” cofounder, Rachel.

Nicholas decided to expand his project by asking several friends from school if they would pledge money so that he could buy more footballs to send to the soldiers.

His friends, and soon, friends of his parents and sister, readily agreed. Within a week, he had already received $300 simply through word-of-mouth.

Nicholas decided to call his project, “Footballs for Freedom,” and endeavored to extend his campaign even further. Nicholas emailed a letter explaining his program to family friends, classmates, and acquaintances, who, in turn, sent the project information to their friends and associates.

The project was a perfect charitable cause for the holiday season, and the response was overwhelming. One day at school, for example, Nicholas collected $41 in loose change from his fourth grade classmates!

His father, Michael Fatse, contacted Wilson Sporting Goods. The company agreed to supply footballs at cost for “Footballs for Freedom.”

In mid-December, having collected $3,000, Nicholas was able to order 260 Wilson footballs. Students who had pledged money decorated the footballs with words of support and encouragement. The footballs were shipped out in mid-December.

Over the Christmas holiday, Nicholas personally presented his own “Freedom Football” to Reservist Mike Giacomazzi. Both Nicholas’ family and Mr Giacomazzi attended the same house of worship, Christ the Savor Orthodox Church in Woodbury. Mr Giacomazzi was lucky enough to be home on leave before shipping out to Kuwait less than a week after Christmas.

Then, on February 5, the day before Super Bowl XXXIX, Captain Joseph McGowan of the 143rd Area Support Group of the Connecticut Army National Guard, a Newtown native, sent Nicholas a very special email.

“Sgt Karen Reilly of my unit [recently] gave me one of your footballs!” he wrote. “I just wanted to say thanks. It’s really great that you thought of us. We threw the ball around today and had some fun for the first time in a long time.”

Captain McGowan then wrote that his wife was having a baby in May and he “hoped” to come home for that. Captain McGowan’s parents and brother, a Newtown police officer, still reside in Sandy Hook.

To top off the excitement, the cable network Fox News aired a clip of Captain McGowan’s unit tossing the footballs around during the Super Bowl XXXIX preshow!

“Thanks again for your support,” wrote Captain McGowan. “It really meant a lot to us.”