VN United is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Garland. It was founded in 2015 by a group of people that wanted to form teams and play soccer, and they did. Then they went on to create the Dallas Asian American Soccer Tournament, and it is now in its fifth year.
The all-volunteer group continues to add to its long list of community service projects. They work to get people registered to vote, they conduct canned food drives, have helped the city with vaccination events, have distributed food to storm victims and more.
About three years ago, the organization started hosting an exhibition soccer game between the Garland Police Department and Garland Fire Department with the hope of improving the relationships between the community and first responders. A decision was made to expand when they saw positive results.
Nancy Dinh, the tournament event chair, wanted to grow it even further. As she began to get calls from other cities that wanted to participate in the exhibition game, Dinh got the idea for a tournament. That exhibition game has now grown into a different one-day tournament with a maximum number of 12 teams. Each team is from a first responder organization – police, fire and healthcare workers, and every team chooses a charity. All the money each team raises goes to its chosen charity.
They gave monetary prizes for first, second and third place in the tournament. There were also penalty kick shootouts to raise even more money. In addition, the players sold hats, and 100% of the money went to their team’s charity.
A canned food drive was added to this year’s event, and it gave all the teams another opportunity to raise more money for their charities. First place received $600, second place got $400 and third place received $200. All teams that brought at least 50 cans got $100.
The event raised approximately $10,000 for the charities.
In addition, they collected almost 900 cans of food, and those were given to the Life Message Food Pantry in Rowlett.
“This all started with a bunch of guys wanting to play soccer….We’re all volunteers,” Dinh said. “No one gets paid…It’s a lot of work…But we all enjoy it and we’re blessed to be able to do it.”
The charities are grateful for the hard work of the VN United volunteers.
“The Asian American community has been a huge support to us and been a pleasure to work with for sure. It has been an awesome relationship,” said Christian “Tank” Gipson, a board member of one of the charities.
They were fortunate to have some great sponsors this year to provide the money for the monetary prizes that ended up with the teams’ charities.
Dinh said to save the date for next year’s tournament – July 12 at Garland’s Winters Park. She also asks that everyone support the sponsor organizations and be sure to reference the First Responders Soccer Tournament.
Click here to follow the VN United Soccer Team.
Photos provided by Dr. Jarvis Jacobs.
About VN United:
The Vietnam United (VN United) is a non-profit organization whose membership is comprised of soccer players, professional business and leaders from the Vietnamese American community and organizations.
The nonprofit was established in 2016 in Garland. The organization strives to encourage more Vietnamese American to participate in civic affairs by providing, organizing candidate forums, voter registration drives, CENSUS training, COVID-19 registration, COVID-19 vaccine, blood drive, and much more.
Purpose:
The purposes for which the corporation is organized are for charitable, educational, social and athletic purposes, including but not limited to the training, coaching and instruction of young men and women in the sport of soccer.
Also, to promote and encourage the sport of soccer in Texas as a safe means for attaining good physical fitness among children, young people and adults and in general to engage in only that conduct permitted by the regulations of the Texas Nonprofit Corporation Act.
Mission:
The mission of Vietnam United is to advocate and strives to encourage increased Asian American participation in local, social and civic outreach programs which help increase community awareness, improve Asian American representation in local area and enhance the quality of health and wellness in soccer.