SYDNEY (JTA) — Some $30,000 worth of soccer equipment was donated to the Cook Islands by a foundation established in memory of an Australian Jewish teenager.
The Cook Islands Football Association hosted a ceremony last week to receive the shipment donated by the foundation set up in honor of Reagan Milstein, a 15-year-old soccer player for Maccabi in Melbourne who died in a scuba diving accident in Malaysia on the way home from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
It was the first time that the Reagan Milstein Foundation donated sports equipment to the Cook Islands. Previously it had donated gear to Tonga and Samoa.
The foundation was formed to offer financial and moral support to Australian youth who may not have the opportunity or financial resources to play sports or be involved in a sports club, with a special interest in Indigenous Australian youth, and also to help Reagan’s own club, North Caulfield Maccabi JFC.
Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand, Shemi Tzur, said at the ceremony that the donation is an opportunity to "enhance the relationship between our two countries.”
Foundation CEO Kevin Milstein thanked the Israeli government and said that "Sport breaks down barriers, it fights racism, it engenders the ideals of fair play."
