Ethan Zohn ’96 returns to fundraise

Judy Jarvis Staff Writer

Ethan Zohn ’96 will be emceeing ViCE’s ViCE Versa concert on Friday, April 29 in hopes of garnering support and donations for Grassroot Soccer, an international HIV/AIDS awareness charity of which he is cofounder and vice chairman.

The concert, featuring Talib Kweli as headliner, is free, but Zohn’s charity will be accepting donations. “Truthfully, it really doesn’t matter to me [how much money we raise]. For me it’s more about awareness, more about showing how passionate I am about this and starting a legacy at Vassar and getting all the students excited about this,” he said.

Spurred from conversations with Development Office employees and ViCE CEO Michael Chico ’05, Town House President Grant Hutchinson ’05 saw the opportunity for Zohn to get involved in the concert. “The student body should be more active in supporting its grads who go on to careers in non-profit charity work,” said Hutchinson, who proposed the idea to Zohn in the fall of this year. “We’re hoping this is the first year of a continuing tradition,” Hutchinson added.

After graduating from Vassar, Zohn lived and played professional soccer in Zimbabwe, “where I saw firsthand some of my friends become HIV positive and eventually dying from the disease.”

With the impetus to start the charity, winning “Survivor: Africa” gave him the means to do it. Grassroot Soccer was founded in 2002 by Zohn and other former and current professional soccer players. Their website mission statement reads, “We train professional African soccer players and other role models to educate youth about critical life-skills and HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. Our focus is on helping youth to adopt healthy behaviors and empowering them to reach out to others in the community.”

Zohn goes to Africa about twice a year for Grassroot Soccer and was recently working in Uganda. He is currently heading the U.S. portion of the charity, KickAIDS, visiting high schools around the nation.

This year, KickAIDS will have reached 50,000 high school-age kids, according to Zohn. Zohn also recruits corporate sponsors and helps write the curriculum for the KickAIDS program. His part in Grassroot Soccer is completely voluntary, with his income coming from “stupid ‘Survivor’ stuff,” as he described his frequent television appearances.

“It’s important for me to stay connected to Vassar,” said Zohn.

Recently, he has made two presentations on campus as well as joined the men’s varsity soccer team to Greece this past spring break. Zohn will stay on campus Founder’s Day weekend to play in the alumni soccer game.

Excited for his role at the ViCE Versa concert, Zohn echoes Hutchinson in the hope that the Grassroot Soccer benefit structure for this year’s concert will serve as a model for future years, even if it isn’t his organization that is starting the tradition of awareness.