Members of Miaoli County’s Shing Shing Elementary School dodgeball team plan to raise NT$800,000 by selling key chain on the streets of Toufen Township (頭份) to fund a trip to Japan to play friendly matches there, the school said on Tuesday.
Shing Shing, which in the past two years won back-to-back championships in the nation’s elementary school league’s mixed division, qualified for interleague matches in Japan this year, coach Su Yung-chih (蘇詠智) said.
However, the school has no money to pay for the team’s travel expenses, he added.
The mixed division consists of about 30 teams, he said, adding that the county had not won any championships in five years until Shing Shing carried the title in 2017.
Many of the team’s 16 members come from disadvantaged families with limited income, and dodgeball has been a way for them to find a sense of community and purpose, Su said, adding that the children have worked hard to qualify for the Japanese event.
After the school failed to secure funding, the team had a discussion and the children decided to raise the funds by selling handmade key chains in the summer, he said.
Photo copied by Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
The team is combing the downtown area of Toufen and the children are sparing no effort to see through the final stretch of achieving their dream to play in Japan, he said.
Shing Shing’s motto is be fearless and the team aspires to it on and off the playing field, he said.
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