ROGERS, Arkansas — The holiday season is a time to give and spread joy. Through connections within the community, the managing director for the United Soccer League (USL) Arkansas Wes Harris got connected with the King family and decided to pay it forward.
"We heard about her story, and just their perseverance and struggle, and just really a great family, really strong mom, and taking care of those eight beautiful kids and just going through a really hard time," Harris said.
The King family consists of a single mom, raising eight kids on her own after her husband died from a heart attack and stroke in October 2022. After dealing with ongoing housing issues, they became homeless for a few months.
"After that, I had to spread out my kids between friends and family. And I kind of went from hotel to hotel, a lot of stress and a lot of heartache, you know, dealing with the death of my husband and being separated from my kids and everything. But we met a wonderful landlord who was willing to have us rent this house and let us move in here at the beginning of October," King said.
To make ends meet, King has a laundry service for people who need clothes washed, dried, and folded. She says this is the only job that allows her to be flexible while raising eight kids.
"I will bring laundry here I will pick it up and deliver. I do it here in the house. And I've charged by the load. And I wash dry fold in any specifics that they have for their clothes, I will make sure that we treat [the laundry], you know, as if it was my own," King said. "I also go to people's houses and help them just fold laundry."
With eight kids, King has had her fair share of practice with doing laundry.
"Being a mother of eight, I'm always doing laundry," King said. "It's something that I enjoy doing. It's very soothing for me. I can just play my music and that's kind of my time to do what I want to do. And there's a lot of people that don't have the time you know, they're working full-time, or they have their own children and families to deal with it. And if I can help in any way, that's where I want to be."
USL Arkansas' end goal is to raise $2,000 for the King family's needs of household and essential items. So far, the soccer club has raised $1,400.
"It would really go a very long way in making Katrina and her family's lives easier. For example, the majority of them are sleeping on the floor. And so to have eight children, and not have beds for them, it's just heartbreaking," Harris said.
The King family may be the first family USL Arkansas started a fundraiser for, but they definitely won't be the last.
"So, as a club, we knew that you know, we can't solve all the world's problems and be there for everybody. But we could come together and really try to make an impact for one family," Harris said. "In the spirit of giving in the holiday season, we wanted to try to do that. We're so excited about being able to kind of give back and contribute in a meaningful way, but this is exactly the kind of thing that we were hoping to be able to do and expect to do as a club as part of our values."
"It brings tears to my eyes and just warms my heart that they're willing to step up and to help us out and just show us love. [It's] more than anything that anybody could give us. It's just the love that is being shown right now is amazing," King said.
With the money raised, King plans to buy beds for her kids to sleep on or a bigger vehicle that seats all her children instead of just four of them.
USL Arkansas has started a GoFundMe link and you can donate until Dec. 19. On that same day, the soccer club will host a trivia night at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks at 8 p.m. to raise any last-minute funds for the King family. If you'd like to find out more visit the USL Arkansas website.
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