Trib Town: Tourney marks job well done by kids in immigrant program

By Jennifer Anderson 

When Svetlana Baronetchi arrived in Portland with her son last spring from Moldova – the poorest nation in Europe – neither of them spoke English.

Yet her 14-year-old son, Oleg, an eighth-grader at Binnsmead Middle School in Southeast Portland, now speaks and understands enough to communicate with his teacher and classmates.

“He’s doing fine with every subject, and he likes to talk to his peers in class,” Baronetchi said through a translator. “He can ask questions if he doesn’t understand.”

A big part of Oleg’s success has been the ASPIRE program (the acronym stands for After-School Program for Immigrant and Refugee Education), run by the Southeast Portland-based Immigrant Refugee Community Organization.

Funded by a Portland Children’s Investment Fund grant of $500,000 per year, the program offers tutoring in English and other subjects as well as a host of after-school activities to get kids involved in their community.

Today, the ASPIRE students will get a small reward for a successful start to the school year: a soccer tournament at the new indoor soccer complex in Southeast Portland.

“We’re doing it so they’ll continue to be engaged,” said Lyn Tan, the program’s lead coordinator. “Even though it’s a soccer tournament, we want the youths to understand that there’s a competitive aspect but they also have to work together as a team.”

The ASPIRE program serves 80 students in grades four through eight at Binnsmead, Lent Elementary and Marysville Elementary, two other Southeast schools with diverse populations.

The kids at Binnsmead and Lent will participate in the tournament; the Marysville students will sit this one out but likely will participate in the next one, Tan said.

The soccer tournament also will be open to the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program at Binnsmead and Lent, and a program at Binnsmead that helps eighth-graders make the transition to high school. The game is set for today at Portland Futsal, which opened three months ago at 3401 S.E. 17th Ave.

The owner of the complex, Paul Lomanto, said he waived the $600 it would have cost the group to rent the building for two hours.

He said he did so because youth soccer clubs are expensive for kids, considering the cost of traveling to tournaments, league fees and equipment.

“There’s a lot of kids who can’t afford it,” Lomanto said. “During the holiday season I want to give something back.”

Lomanto said much of his customer base is international, since soccer is celebrated across the world.

“Being here every night, I hear almost every language imaginable,” he said. “I almost wanted to put a flag up where people could put a pin in where they’re from. It feels like at least 100 different nationalities.”

Whether it’s kids or adults, Lomanto said, soccer seems to bring people together. “The beautiful thing is that soccer is almost like a language,” he said, “the same all over the world.”

Last Modified : December 18th, 2006 Filed under : Uncategorized Navigate : Previous post /