Going on now: Rock 4 Robert fundraiser

11-year-old to undergo third heart surgery Oct. 23

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

* Donate online!
* Video – Coach Pat Moss
* Sept. 18: Robert has ‘a lot of heart’

CORDOVA — Put nearly two dozen young boys and girls in a room with soda, cookies and a variety of other snacks and what do you get?

Something other than an early bedtime.

Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com

And that’s just find with Pat Moss, Pam Meacham or Angel Mabe. The three are spearheading the six-hour fundraiser for Robert Potter, an 11-year-old member of the AC Rocks U12 travel soccer team.

At 9 p.m. Friday, there were still four more hours to go. The idea is that teammates and friends of the Rockingham Middle School sixth-grader and team goalie took to rocking chairs and made sure they remained in motion throughout.

Of course, as the boys played FIFA 2014 on X-Box 360, the chairs sometimes stopped their back-and-forth motion. Especially when Real Madrid scored against Barcelona, or vice versa.

Moss, the team’s coach who has guided Robert’s play on the field for several years already, said he was proud of his team. Going into the night, they had already generated more than $8,000 in pledges and donations. Moss spoke of his efforts to teach the kids to be unselfish while on the field.

That lesson works pretty well off it, too, Moss said. Justin Mabe is the perfect example. Moss told his team he’d purchase a pair of the popular Beats headphones to the teammate who raised the most money. Justin raised about $1,000 but he already had a pair, so Moss said he could use the same amount of money to spend on whatever he wanted. Justin declined.

Sarah Meacham | PeeDeePost.com

Moss said that, instead, Justin donated the headphones back to the cause. He said the second-place fundraiser could have them. Moss said that generated an intense competition that, ultimately, helped increase the amount of funds raised to help cover expenses related to Robert’s surgery.

“I was really proud of him,” Moss said.

The headphones ended up the possession of teammate River Meacham, who raised more than $800.