Asheville City Soccer Club hosts community event, diaper drive in Buncombe County
Asheville City SC turned its summer open house into a diaper drive, drawing families, student-athletes and local nonprofits to River Ridge Business Center.
Asheville City Soccer Club turned its Blues Community Connect Event into a diaper drive and neighborhood open house at HF Center of Exercise Science, drawing supporters, student-athletes, local families, community organizations and sponsors to River Ridge Business Center in Asheville. The club built it to pull the people around the team into one room instead of leaving the connection to match day alone. The event ran from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 27.
Mathes Mennell, the club’s chief operating officer for sporting and club operations, said the aim was simple: "create a space where the people around the club could connect, collaborate and celebrate together." The event included an open house, autographs, a diaper drive, family activities and free raffle tickets to win a signed Asheville City SC jersey. Younger children played games with ACSC players and got free ice cream, while attendees stopped at booths from community organizations and local services.
Participants could access free wellness resources from health professionals who work with the club’s players. Families who brought a pack of diapers for Babies Need Bottoms earned an extra raffle entry.
Babies Need Bottoms is a diaper bank serving Western North Carolina and has partnered with community organizations across the region since 2017. The nonprofit says nearly 1 in 2 American families struggles to afford enough diapers, and it mobilized after Hurricane Helene in September 2024 to distribute diapers, wipes and infant formula. Buncombe County’s Register of Deeds partnered with the nonprofit to expand access to diapers, wipes and formula.
Babies Need Bottoms has reached 3 million diapers distributed. A Buncombe County grant report put the nonprofit’s 2024 preemie-diaper distribution at 6,400, including 4,779 after Hurricane Helene, and its first-quarter 2025 preemie-diaper distribution at 3,171 from just 25 in the same period of 2024. Asheville City SC had already set a goal of collecting 40,828 diapers for local infants in need, and it has linked donations to match-day incentives before, including a merchandise discount for donors.
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