Happy 4th of July!

KCAFF and the Select League would like to wish everyone a fantastic 4th of July. We have a great privilege to live in the best country in the world. There are very few places on earth where someone can come from very little means to become a great success and yet that's the story of many Americans past and present.

We'd also like to say job well done to Lenexa City F.C. who marched in the Lenexa 4th of July parade. This truly incapsulates what my vision was for our clubs; to get involved within the community and become something that the people of each community can rally behind and bond over. Great job #lenexacityfc, job well done!

While I was born in Oxford, England and have the great privilege of dual citizenship, I hold a deep love and gratitude for these United States of America. My family has been with this country from its humble beginnings, so I'd like to write a little ode to this family of mine, in particular an aunt that was instrumental in helping this country gain its independence many years ago.

My family was one of the original families to settle in the White Plains area of New York in the late 1600s. When the Revolutionary War broke out, my 6th great grand aunt, Ann Fisher Miller, her husband and her sons chose to side with the revolutionaries. They would pay dearly for their dream of freedom as both her husband (Elijiah Miller) and two of her sons perished in the war. But it was my 6th great grandfather Daniel Fisher's sister, Ann, who would welcome none other than General George Washington to her home during the war as he utilized her home as his headquarters three separate times. Her house stands as a museum. Her full story can be seen here: The Tragic Patriotism of Ann Fisher Miller.

This is just one story of many of ordinary people taking extraordinary steps in order to build a nation like no other. Remembering these great unnamed heroes along with our well-known forefathers reminds us that freedom is not only built by those in the spotlight, but by countless ordinary individuals whose courage and sacrifice shaped the foundation of our nation.