Like Beer? Like Doing Good Deeds? Be at Sunday's Match

Ever buy your TA capo a pint?

Ever endure the line of dawdlers in the beer line, as they take an eternity to sliiiide their debit cards, unburdening that piece of plastic of 5 or 8 or 12 bucks, in exchange for a frothy Green and Gold, until finally you reach the front of the line, dispense your hard earned cash for 12 or 16 hoppy ounces --two please, actually!-- and traverse the slippery North End steps, all the way to the capo nest, where you place the offering at your capo's feet, that they may more easily soothe their ravaged throat?

OK, wait. That's a little overwrought, isn't it?

Let's start over: Said pint might be a nice gesture toward that screaming, ballsy beast that inhabits the raw edge of the North End, and purchasing said pint might very well be a good deed, but it's an awful lot of effort. There's got to be an easier way to earn your karma points.

This Sunday, when the Timbers take on the L.A. Galaxy at Jeld-Wen, there will be.

The event is called Buy Your Capo a Pint (BYCAP), and the concept is simple: There will be a bucket in front of some of the capo nests and the main stage in the North End, in the very spots where you usually place your liquid offerings. Take the money you'd normally spend on the beer, and plop it in the bucket. Or give it to a designated Drum & Trumpet Corps person in Section 106. The money will go to a very good cause: Camp Meadowood Springs.

An Oregon nonprofit, Camp Meadowood Springs provides a unique camping experience for children with communication and/or social learning challenges. It's an incredibly cool place for kids who have a tough time just finding their own voices, literally. Which is why the capos, the TA and the 107ist, all of whom know a thing or two about voices, chose the camp as the BYCAP beneficiary.

"What these kids struggle with --sometimes just to complete a sentence without tremendous effort-- leaves me speechless," says capo Patch Perryman. "Asking for the greatest football supporters the world has ever seen to collectively pitch in and donate so kids can enjoy a summer camp and gain incalculably valuable speech skills is a humbling cause to herald."

In addition to an intensive hearing and speech therapy program, Meadowood Springs helps campers achieve the following goals:

• Enhance communication and/or social skills
• Make new and everlasting friends
• Become independent
• Enjoy physical activities
• Develop resiliency

For the past two years, the capos have passed a hat among the TA during a late-season game in order to raise money for campers' tuition. Both years, during those single games alone, the donations totaled almost $1,200, enough to send one kid to camp. That kind of fundraising is nothing to shake a stick at, but this year the capos want more. Three times as much, to be specific.

Sure, that's a lotta "pints." But think about it: Almost all of us went to some kind of camp --Girls Scouts, soccer camp, Camp Winnebunportahanapoo, whatever. We take the fact that we were able to go there, and the lessons we learned there, for granted. We take for granted the fact that while we were there, we were able to shout and sing and talk pre-teen smack with a full and throaty voice. And today, we take for granted the fact that in the middle of the woods, around campfires and lakesides, in canoes and cabins, and trudging along trails, we learned leadership skills, friendship skills, and resiliency, things that have carried us through adulthood.

Some kids ain't so lucky. So on Sunday, when you use your own voice to sing and chant and celebrate, don't forget to buy your capo a "pint." And then buy a real one for yourself, too; after all, one good deed deserves another.