On Friday, April 20, Nona Soccer Academy announced a huge partnership with its new sponsor, Nemours. The soccer academy was founded in November 2016 and has been going strong ever since, as soccer plays a large part in the Lake Nona community.

“You know…since the beginning, we need to have a…I’ve always had a dream that we had to have a big community partner, and I just thought since day one when we put up the idea to develop Nona Soccer, Nemours would be a good fit. And then with the network that we developed here, we were able to get the door open, and Nemours was very, uh, pleased with my idea and kind of bought into it, and we’re very excited to be a part of it,” said Fabio Silva, the founder and owner of Nona Soccer Academy.

When Silva made the announcement in front of media, players and their parents, the kids screamed that they knew it about Nemours.

“It’s extremely exciting to have this big community partner helping us,” exclaimed Silva as he revealed brand new jerseys to the players adorned with Nemours across the chest.

When Nonahood News asked Silva what he hoped the partnership with Nemours would bring to the children, he was optimistic about further change.

“For the kids? It’s just that the whole hospital, the big hospital in the community…it’s a place that we don’t want to go to, you know? And when I first talked to Nemours, every time we’d drive by, I’d ask the parents, ‘Have you ever been to Nemours?’ [They’d respond] like, ‘No, I don’t want to go there.’ And then this relationship will open the community, open the doors of the building for the community to come in and tour the property and have, be more welcoming as opposed to just as an emergency going to the hospital, having the doors open and kind of a more welcome atmosphere for the kids.”

Nona Soccer Academy has much to look forward to in coming seasons.