Feb. 28, 2008

LANCASTER, Pa. - Survivor Africa winner and Fox Sports Soccer Analyst, Ethan Zohn, will speak on his experiences in Africa, the Grassroot Soccer campaign, and HIV/AIDS awareness at Franklin & Marshall College on Monday, March 3. Zohn will speak at the Roschel Performing Arts Center at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free and open to the general public.

The focus of the evening will be Franklin & Marshall's Soccer Africa project, a campaign to battle HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The project was conceived by F&M's men's Head Soccer Coach, Dan Wagner, and has grown into a tribute to Christopher T. Campbell. Campbell, a Narberth, Pennsylvania native unexpectedly passed away one day prior to the start of the 2007 season, which would have been his senior campaign.

In 2007, Wagner partnered with Grassroot Soccer, co-founded by Zohn, to begin making his idea a reality. Using the power of soccer in the fight against AIDS, Grassroot Soccer provides African youth with the knowledge, skills and support to live HIV free.

"Much of our success thus far is attributable to Ethan," says Wagner. "He has been instrumental in bridging the gap between F&M and Khayelitsha."

Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, is the town that F&M's soccer team will travel to on March 14. 53 of the Diplomats' goodwill ambassadors will run a series of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention soccer clinics on the site of the future Christopher T. Campbell Memorial Soccer Complex. They will also take with them donated uniforms and soccer equipment for use at the complex and throughout the region.

The Diplomats have raised $155,000 in less than six months and are well on their way to fund the $330,000, lighted turf facility in Khayelitsha Township in honor of the late Campbell.