A community rally is being organized for Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Victoria Park in Coquitlam support of a soccer coach who has been dogged by someone who shouts racial slurs at him when he’s on the field.
Groups that include the United Way of the Lower Mainland, which sponsors the club as part of is Hi Neighbour initiative on Burke Mountain, are supporting the club and are expected to take part in the rally, along with other Coquitlam residents.
The soccer clinic was started by Robert Birungi, the husband of Port Coquitlam native Carli Travers, who started a non-profit group to help orphaned children in Uganda.
She met and married Birungi in the African nation and the couple relocated to the Tri-Cities, where Birungi is coaching kids this summer to keep them active for a small drop-in fee which goes to support www.abetavu.org.
According to Travers, since the middle of summer an individual has “made it clear that my husband was not welcome, including driving up and down the road shouting “out of my park n-----” to my husband and kids in front of all the children.
“He keeps showing his presence and trying to intimidate and knows where we live," she said. "Yes, the police are involved and this individual has been talked to by the police and warned but they are still around and this does not take the pain away,” she writes in a Facebook post.
Travers said in her post that the rally is a way to show support for her husband and show the “individual does not represent our community.”
“My husband has been deeply disheartened by all of his and it pains me that such meaningless hate is around us,” she wrote.
A United Way spokesperson said the rally is expected to go ahead this afternoon with the goal of standing up against racial hatred.
“We’re disturbed by the issue but inspired by how the community is responding,” the spokesperson told The Tri-City News.
