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JUNE JONES GOODWILL MISSION ON ISLAND FOR THE 6TH TIME

This past Thursday evening, the Hawaiian Airlines flight brought in June Jones and his Goodwill Mission group, which was greeted by Samoa Bowl Chairman Leala Melila Purcell, Peter Gurr, and the rest of the Samoa Bowl committee, that crowded the Pago Pago International Airport.

Yesterday morning, at the Governor’s Office, June Jones and his Goodwill Mission group were able to meet with Honorable Governor Togiola Tulafono, to present five $2,000 scholarship checks to some of the fortunate student athletes on island, who graduated this year, and will be looking to head out to college, not only to further their athletic knowledge in football and volleyball but their education.

Samoa News spoke with Jones after the meeting with the Governor regarding their sixth trip back to American Samoa, “our trips over the years have turned out real positive, not just for the kids and the coaches but everyone in the medical part of the mission gets bigger and better and we are extending ourselves and our contribution to the people of Samoa.”

He added, “Its a way to give back, and we are fortunate to be coaching this great game of football, and coach a lot of good kids and the community. American Samoa have been very good to me when I was coaching at the University of Hawaii, I had many Polynesian kids playing for me and really made the difference for me in both winning and losing, and I have had so much aloha for them and the people out there ever since I came down in 1999.”

According to coach Jones, this was one of the ways they could give back, “...we tried to figure out a way to contribute, and to give back to the kids, and we came up with this way of doing it with the coaches, and working with the student athletes and also our medical mission, so its pretty exciting for us as well as the people who are participating.”

June Jones told Samoa News about their preparation for this sixth trip to American Samoa, as well as changes to their GoodWill Mission group, “it’s pretty much an all year deal, we collect medical supplies, and we have a warehouse in Hawaii where we store them and over the years they’ve become available from different hospitals and different doctors, this year we are visiting some a care center’s and we are giving them a lot of supplies, and we will be spending sometime with the people there and help them get through their situation.”

Jones mentioned to Samoa News that after their visit to the Fatu-o-Aiga Hope House Center, they will make their way to LBJ Hospital in Faga’alu, “we are also going to the hospital where we have the kids ward mainly and we’re doing some good things along with bringing a lot of antibiotics along with medical supplies with us also.”

According to June Jones, their main goal for this sixth trip on island, is to encourage the kids, “our main goal is to encourage the kids to stay on top of their school work, even though we have a lot of NFL players and football coaches, but you can’t do anything in life, you can’t even play football in college if you don’t take care of your academics, so that’s why we are also focusing on the academic scholarships versus the athletic scholarships, and all of these are chosen by the Department of Education of American Samoa, so its a good situation for the kids , and we are just thankful that we have the opportunity to give back”.

June Jones and his Goodwill Mission wanted to thank all of those who made this mission possible, “well we are very appreciative of the sponsors, Blue Sky in particular, and we are thankful that they have every year been a contributor to the program and have helped us the phones when we get down here so that we may be able to keep in contact with our loved ones back home.”