Never assume that everybody knows

This is another of those "what was I thinking?" posts. I've been meaning to write this one for a couple of weeks.

The other day, I decided to stop by the new sporting goods store in the town next to the one in which Trinity Lime Rock (and our summer soccer program) are located. I wanted to say hello, and to pick up some inexpensive equipment to serve as a backstop sports program for any Sundays when the attendance just didn't work for soccer.

As it turns out, this is also the place where we've bought the tee-shirts that we give away to participants for the past two years. (They've done a great job for us, by the way.)

While I was paying for my purchases, I mentioned to the lady behind the register that our attendance was down this summer. We also talked about how the local soccer travel club had been able to roster only half as many teams for the fall season as they usually did -- she suggested it was probably the lousy state of the economy, gas prices, etc., which I was able to accept.

However, then she said something to the effect of "It's too bad that your program is only for Salisbury kids!".

The fact is that it is NOT just for kids who live the the same township we do, and I hastened to tell her that. Fact is, we welcome everybody, even people just passing through.

However, in our corner of New England, recreation and education are tightly controlled on a Township basis. There is a K-8 school in every one of the towns that make up our Region I. Every town has its own Recreation Department, and their own rec sports, and they absolutely do NOT accept outsiders.

Somehow I had assumed that, because we're a church, people would not impose this "township model" on us -- but obviously they have done just that.

Well, that's something to consider next year when getting the publicity out. We have to make sure that we make it clear that it does not matter what township you live in -- you are still welcome at Trinity Lime Rock summer soccer.

By the way, the lady with whom I had the conversation was delighted to hear that we were open to kids from her town. In fact, she invited us to put up posters and even pictures on their community bulletin board next summer.

However, since doing so will involve setting foot on the turf of another parish, I guess we can anticipate some blowback on this -- whether that parish has any summer programs for kids or not (it does not).