“I’m a Minnesota Gopher,” pointed out David Waithaka of Nairobi, Kenya, as he visited Eden Prairie’s Noon Rotary Club on April 10.

Waithaka lived in Edina for eight years and coached soccer (U-14) there, with his teams even playing against Eden Prairie. Waithaka earned two master’s degrees and two undergraduate degrees at the U. He returned to Africa and volunteered with The Mathare Valley Soccer Association and Inspiration Center in the slums of Mathare, where he grew up.

He came to the Rotary meeting during a visit to the United States to thank the club for the 400 jerseys and T-shirts the group’s members collected from the Eden Prairie Soccer Club. The club worked with other Rotary clubs to send the shirts to Africa.

“We operate a comprehensive student resource center, providing students with connections to recreational, educational and life skill building activities,” Waithaka said of his organization in an e-mail.

He said more than 400 children from ages 3 to 18 receive mentoring from the organization.

“All of these kids are at risk,” he said before the meeting. “They would otherwise not be able to afford to play soccer,” or to even have a ball.

Waithaka said that Mathare Valley has produced some of the top soccer players in the country.

The accomplishments of some of those who have made it out of the slum, and like him, who have been successful in business, are an inspiration to the children there, he said.

“By the time they are in the third grade, they’re more educated than their parents,” Waithaka said. Mentors help the children with their homework and expand their horizons so they learn about sports, arts and careers beyond their destitute environment.

When Waithaka came to Minnesota for school he was part of a Big Brother program. He brought those ideas back with him to form a sports and social program.

An article in the Daily Nation newspaper in Nairobi said that Waithaka is “such a popular figure in the area that during his 1997 wedding ceremony to Vicky Wanjiku, about 15,000 people turned up at the church, and 5,000 for the reception thereafter.”

Waithaka said that mentoring focuses on issues like health and the importance of family and education.

“The idea is to make them have healthy ambitions and to make them change agents in the community,” he said in the e-mail.

“Thank you very much for this,” he told the club. For more about his group, visit www.mathare-assoc.org.

My Book Day

One upcoming event on the Noon Rotary Club’s calendar is “My Book Day,” in which first-graders receive a book and local dignitaries read to children, scheduled for 8 a.m. to noon May 9 at Eden Prairie City Center, 8080 Mitchell Road. For more information, visit www.epnoonrotary.org.