Peach fundraiser helps soccer club

MONTROSE — Girls of the Montrose Soccer Club have a goal of new sorts — selling as many peaches as possible to raise funds for the upcoming season.

Members of the U-14 and U-12 girls teams have joined efforts this past week by picking peaches and boxing them for customers. The girls will head to Cunningham Orchards in Delta again on Tuesday to pick for their second round of orders. They are selling the 20 lb. boxes for $18.

Robin Hoover, a 12-year-old member of the U-14 team has been helping in the fund raising efforts. This harvest is the third year in which she has picked peaches.

“It’s itchy work,” she said. “There is all that peach fuzz and sometimes the bugs come out. Other than that it’s pretty fun.” Hoover has played soccer since kindergarten with the Montrose Recreation District and moved to the Montrose Soccer Club’s traveling teams when she turned 10. The girls traveled to the orchard on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. They picked enough peaches to pack 100 20-lb boxes. The boxes were then delivered to the customers.

On Friday, many of the girls spent the afternoon making jam and pies from the peaches bought by their families. In the Hoover family kitchen, the sweet smell of summer fruit filled the air. Dough was kneaded and cut and jars were sealed. Robin’s mother, Andrea Gray-Hoover, commented how she already had plenty of orders for more peaches hanging on the fridge.

“Soccer is a demanding mistress,” she said with a laugh. “We will be spending our last day of summer vacation picking peaches. However, you have to pick when they are ready. We have a lot of customers. The Montrose community has been very supportive. I guess they like fruit picked by midget slaves wearing shin guards with plenty of attitude.”

Hoover said all the money raised goes toward team registration fees and equipment costs. She said the average tournament registration fees range from $400-$600. Plus families have to pay for food and hotel rooms while on the road.

“All the families have to pump a lot of money into soccer,” Gray-Hoover said. “And the great thing about selling peaches is we aren’t sending our children out to peddle sugar. We don’t want them selling all this cookie dough and those candy bars. We are trying to teach them to exercise and eat right.”

The regular season kicks off Saturday at Sunset Mesa. The girls will face teams from Newcastle and Rifle. The Montrose Soccer Club consists of five traveling teams. There are three boys teams and two girls teams. The club will also hold another fundraiser at the Octoberfest activities on October 6th in Centennial Plaza.

Jaime Gurule, the U-14 coach, also serves as the assistant coach for both the boys and girls soccer programs at Montrose High School.

“I have been coaching with the club for a little over 10 years,” he said. “The great thing about this program is it really teaches these kids to bond. They learn how to be nice to one another and be truly supportive. When you are in the heat of things and the chips are down, it’s human nature to jump on your team mates, but we are teaching to play together. Then by the time they hit high school they know how one another thinks.”

Gurule said the fruit fundraiser really helps the traveling teams. He was unable to make it to the orchard last week due to MHS practices, but his family made the trek.

“I just love peaches,” he said. “My entire garage floor is covered in boxes of them and my 4-wheeler, it’s out sitting in the rain. Oh well, at least it smells good in there.”

To order peaches, call Gray-Hoover at 249-7106 or Amy Rowan at 275-5251.