Unlike Sullivan, who had lived in the Valley since she was 10 years old, her new friends were a long way from their home country of Ghana and had recently moved to the U.S. through a partnership with an academic and athletic academy.
The friends remained close as they each went on to play in college, and Sullivan decided to visit Ghana with her former classmates prior to her senior season at Cal-Lutheran. It was a trip that would change her life. “I went out there for a month, and that was all it took,” she said of her initial trip in the summer of 2009. “I did not want to get back on that plane (to go home). It was my senior season and I was captain, so I went back, but as soon as soccer was over, I was ready to get back to Africa.”
Sullivan graduated that December and was back in Africa by January. She has lived there for nearly two years, the last year teaching English and social studies while also coaching soccer at an academy in Sierra Leone through the Craig Bellamy Foundation (CBF).
On Monday, Sullivan was back in the Valley to host a fundraiser for the first two of what she hopes will become many more young Sierra Leone soccer players who will be coming to the U.S. to play and study on a scholarship through the CBF, founded by Welsh soccer star Craig Bellamy. The event, which was held at the Solvang Veterans Memorial Building, drew about 80 people and raised about $7,000, even on short notice. It was put together to help with travel and other living costs for 14-year-olds Dennis Cole and Alhassan Bah, who will be moving to the Valley with Sullivan this summer to begin four-year scholarships at Dunn School.
“They’re nervous; this is a huge change,” said Sullivan, the U.S. coordinator for the CBF. “But I’m so excited and they’re excited as well.”
There was live music and a silent auction, along with food and drinks, at the fundraiser, which was mainly organized by Sullivan and her friends and family, including at least one of her former teammates at Cal-Lutheran. Waid Ibrahim, who was one of the original students to come to Dunn from Ghana, also spoke at the event. Ibrahim played his senior season at UC-Santa Barbara last fall.
Brenda Juarez, who worked in the attendance office at Dunn when the first students from Ghana arrived in 2004, said she was immediately on board when she heard what Sullivan was trying to accomplish.
“Once you get to know these boys and their enthusiasm for life and what they do – with their athletics and education – you just become very attached and supportive of them,” Juarez said. “There are very few people like Kelsey around who are willing to go the extra mile to make a difference. It’s really great.”
The trip to California will be just the second plane ride for Cole and Bah, whose first flight was from their native Sierra Leone to Ghana. They won’t be the only ones who might have a tough time adjusting to life in America, though. Sullivan, who will live with them when they get here, said she’s become accustomed to the lack of amenities in Sierra Leone, a third-world country that is often ranked among the worst places in the world to live.
“It’s weird,” she said before Monday’s fundraiser, “I feel really good when I go there. It’s almost reverse culture shock when I come back here and there’s so much stuff and I’m over-sensitized.”
Sullivan currently lives in a hut near the academy where she works in Sierra Leone. She said there isn’t electricity and that there might be three ATMs in the entire village, which is home to about 20,000 people. “With the advertisements and TV and music and noise and Internet and your phone actually working and all these things, it’s kind of hard to adjust,” she said of being back in the States. “There’s so many people there living in just unbelievable poverty, but for me, I look at it like I can help who I can help. You can’t help everybody, so you have to pick your area that you can make a difference in and that’s what we’ve done.”
Sullivan said the ultimate goal is for the students to eventually return to their homeland and help turn around the plight in Sierra Leone, which is still recovering from a civil war that ended in 2002. One of the biggest causes for the high poverty level is lack of education, something that the CBF is working to try to change while also developing top-level athletes. After high school and college, some may go on to play soccer professionally, but they will all hopefully be able to make an impact in their home communities, Sullivan said. “The hope is that they go back to Sierra Leone and give back to that country and reinvest in it and make a difference there,” she said. “It’s not unrealistic to think that one or two of our kids could be presidential candidates in the next 10 years. It’s that big of a deal that this charity is there, because there isn’t much going on.”
As an example of the hope that many in Sierra Leone have for the students at the academy, Sullivan said that people have painted murals of some of the players in public places around Freetown.
“(The boys) take their studies very seriously because they know what it means,” she said. “They know what they need to do on the other end. Hopefully, if we’ve done our job right in teaching them about helping others, they’ll want to go back and invest in their country and make a difference.”
Sullivan – who ran the Paris Marathon in April to raise money for the first-ever girls soccer league in Sierra Leone – said that she hasn’t yet found a place to live when she and the students arrive, but she does have a solid backup plan for at least the first month: “Once we get here, we’ll probably be staying with mom until we get it figured out,” she said.
Since Cole and Bah will be the first students to come to the U.S. through the CBF, Sullivan said her boss was unsure if the community here in the Valley would show up and support Sullivan’s fundraising effort. Thanks to her own upbringing, she said she knew that wouldn’t be a problem.
“I told him this is the one place I know that people will turn out for this,” she said. “It’s a great place to live, and I’m excited that the boys are coming into a really welcoming community, which is pretty cool.” Juarez, who watched the students from Ghana learn and grow after their arrival eight years ago, said the students aren’t the only ones who will be benefiting from the program.
“It’s rewarding just seeing the impact on their lives and how much they want to give back to their schools and the community and their homelands, and serve as examples for the rest of us,” she said. “It’s very exciting and fulfilling. Kelsey has a big heart and is just very dedicated to making a difference.”