Zebadiah Montgomery

 

Full disclosure: this week's newsletter is more for my sake than anything else. I have spoken several times in previous newsletters about my nephew who was battling an aggressive form of leukemia. Sadly, that battle came to an end last week. Losing a 14 year old comes with a profound sadness and pronounced emptiness as one tries to come to grips with their loss. Zeb, for his part, ran his race with grace and never stopped smiling and thinking about his impact on others. Towards the end of his life, he decided that he wanted to make a difference in this world whether he lived or died and decided that the mandate on his life was to collect soccer balls for needy children in Kenya, an area his granddad serves as a missionary. Zeb was a select soccer player for Impact FC and thought that this would be the way that he could give back and add his own style while doing so. Soccer balls were brought to his funeral in lieu of flowers and almost 900 soccer balls have been donated so far. I bring this to those in the club who might be interested in collecting soccer balls. The family is in the process of setting up a foundation which we will likely call Zebstrong and plan to turn this into an ongoing concern. The balls collected so far will be distributed to needy in children in the slums of Nairobi and beyond. The outpouring of sympathy and support has amazed the family and I don't want to share this story as a solicitation for your condolences, rather I would like to honor Zeb's legacy by furthering his cause and helping it transcend his own life.