Niki Crowley was a key member of the Charlotte United management that looked after our stranded travelling party so well and she took it upon herself to write to the club with the following words of appreciation...
I have three girls who play for Charlotte United Football Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. And over the last three weeks we have had the extreme pleasure of getting to know the Reading FC Academy under-18 boys.
I am an assistant to Neil Orridge, the Business Director at our club, and have helped organise the stay of the boys while they were here.
The community of Charlotte has really reached out and helped the boys during their stay, and have turned what could have been a bad situation, into an INCREDIBLE situation.
As a result, I think the boys had a great time despite, naturally, wanting to get home.
But I write to you because I feel the need to tell you how wonderful these boys were and how well they represented Reading Football Club and England while they were here.
They are true gentlemen and have each been as polite and respectful as anyone could ask of any young man.
During their extended stay, they took part in clinics and practices with the kids, training all ages throughout our club, went to fun events with the girls and boys, and invited the kids to take part in all of the fun activities that they were offered.
With all the negativity in the world, I wanted to be the first to let you know, they were an absolute pleasure to have here and get to know.
They handled themselves with the utmost respect for others and genuine kindness to all our staff and kids, and planted a seed in many of the young minds at CUFC.
Not only are you developing fantastic footballers but fantastic men as well. We were very proud to host the team and look forward to future opportunities involving Reading FC.
The kids at CUFC fell in love with boys and hope to see them all again soon. We were sad to see them leave.
Thank you for loaning them to us over those three weeks and I am proud to call them all our extended family from England. They are welcome here and at any of our homes anytime.
Niki Crowley
Charlotte United FC
