Jasper junior on mission to score a new home for orphans

Olivia Ruckriegel has never traveled out of the country on a mission trip.

But, rather than waiting for an opportunity to go, the 16-year-old Jasper High School junior has decided to do something in her community now.

Combining her love for soccer—she has played since she could walk and is a striker on the Jasper Girls’ varsity team—and passion for missions, Olivia designed a t-shirt to sell to raise money for the purchase of some land in Africa that will support an orphanage.

The decision to create the campaign came as Olivia was facing some disappointment. She was preparing to go on her first mission trip over spring break this year. “I wanted to go so bad,” she explained. “I was raising money, had a PowerPoint prepared (to convince her parents), and something came up and I couldn’t go.”

She was completely devestated.

“Instead of being sad about it, I decided I wanted to do something,” Olivia said.

A few months later, after attending a Christ in Youth conference in Holland, Michigan, Olivia said the idea to start a campaign to raise money for an international cause came to her.

“I didn’t know what I was going to support,” she said. “I didn’t know where the money was going.”

While at the conference though, Olivia got to know Kim Smith. The Santa Claus resident had been supporting and raising funds for an orphanage in Jinja, Uganda for a couple years.

“She said, ‘I am trying to raise funds to build an orphanage in Africa; do you want to help me?'” Olivia explained.

Without a second thought, Olivia said yes. She had no idea how she would do it but by receiving the invitation, her question as to what she would support was answered.

She decided to combine soccer with the campaign and created a t-shirt driven fundraiser called “Scoring for a Home” with the goal of raising $2,000.

Originally, she felt she would sell the shirts by hitting up her soccer teammates and family and friends. “I thought I could at least guarantee that I sold 40 shirts to my team,” she laughed.

But some of her teammates have taken up the mission as well and are selling shirts for her.

“I have been surprised by how many people have become exited about this,” Olivia said. “I was thinking that only my team would be the ones to buy the shirts and maybe some friends and family.”

But Olivia’s passion is catching and the response has been overwhelming. “I have been so surprised about how people were just giving me love and becoming excited about this,” she said.

So much so that she is nearly halfway to her goal. Not bad for a campaign that began on August 10.

In addition to the t-shirt sales, During the varsity game against Gibson Southern on September 24, the entire soccer team will be wearing the t-shirts during warmup to draw attention to Olivia’s mission.  At halftime, she will be taking donations to help her reach the $2,000 goal.

Right now though, she is in a race to pre-sell 200 t-shirts by September 8 so she can receive a quantity discount, making the campaign more profitable.

Regardless of whether she meets that goal or not, Olivia says she has been inspired to continue to seek out challenges to support missions.

“I am really passionate about mission work, I feel that God has called me to go do something, To be different and to help change something,” she explained.

Creating “Scoring for a Home” has allowed her to help focus on the impact she can have in the world without leaving the Midwest.

It is so rewarding to know you are making an impact so far away from Jasper.”

You can follow her efforts and order shirts on a special Facebook Page Olivia created, https://www.facebook.com/ScoringForAHome/.

Olivia is the daughter of Jeff and Evonne Ruckriegel and has a younger brother, Luke, in the 8th grade at Jasper Middle School.