Nathan Brown is preparing for his second European soccer experience.
The first opportunity started at a camp in Westfield for FC Barcelona (Spain).
“They select 10 percent of the players in all their U.S. camps (to invite to Barcelona),” said Brown, a Noblesville resident.
At 16, he was selected and attended a week-long camp at FC Barcelona in September 2018.
“I loved being there and getting the exposure and my name out there,” said Brown, whose goals are to play college soccer and perhaps professionally. “You got to tour around and meet some professional players. Scouts from England saw me play and invited me to a similar camp in Manchester held by Manchester City FC.”
Brown, who is a homeschooled high school junior, is raising funds with a shoe drive to attend the Manchester City FC camp Nov. 23 to Dec. 2.
“We are trying to collect 2,500 (pairs of) shoes for a company. They would pay us a $1,000, which would help pay for the trip,” Brown said.
The shoes can be gently used or new and are donated to Funds2Orgs, an organization that helps other organizations or individuals raise money through shoe drives.
Brown’s mother, Jennifer Brown, said the shoes are used to help people in Third-World nations start micro-businesses to sell the shoes to help provide for their families.
“It’s any type of shoes except for roller skates, ice skates and roller blades,” Jennifer said.
Brown has collected more than 400 pairs since starting the drive.
It ends Aug. 23, but Jennifer said she wants to have all 2,500 pairs collected by Aug. 20.
There are two drop-off locations in Noblesville for the shoe drive: Landscape Solutions/Warehouse 37, 15325 Herriman Blvd., and Ginger’s Cafe, 1111 S. 10th St., during business hours, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day, and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
