Jean Duffy Wins Christopher Award for “Soccer Grannies”

Somerville, Mass.-based author Jean Duffy has been honored with a Christopher Award for her book, “Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World” (Rowman & Littlefield). It is one of 12 books for adults and young people as the Christopher Awards program marks its 75th year. Duffy is a member of the Lexington, Mass. Lexpressas soccer team.

The book chronicles South African humanitarian Mama Beka’s efforts to create women’s soccer teams for senior citizens to improve their health, the obstacles and biases she faced along the way, and the faith and passion which brought the players to visit the U.S. Mama Beka defied social convention and started a soccer team for the women in her community. The Soccer Grannies, as they came to be known, won over their families and villages who at first rejected the idea of older women playing soccer. That single team quickly grew into dozens. Soon, the strength, tenacity, and pure joy of the Soccer Grannies had captured the attention of the world. In the book Duffy, a soccer-playing mom herself, recounts how she and her team brought the Soccer Grannies to the U.S. and the wonderful friendships and cultural exchanges that followed.

Duffy is a nonfiction writer with essays appearing in the Boston Globe, Concord Monitor, PBS Next Avenue, WBUR Cognoscenti, and other publications. “Soccer Grannies” is her first book. She can be found on the soccer field in Lexington, Massachusetts where her team, the Lexpressas, have been playing for some 20 years. When she’s not attacking the keyboard or flubbing a shot on goal, she might be consulting with nonprofits, helping people downsize, or doing crossword puzzles with her husband.

Christopher Awards were also given to creators of 11 TV/Cable shows and feature films. The Awards celebrate authors, and illustrators as well as writers, producers and directors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit” and reflects the Christopher motto, “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

Tony Rossi, The Christophers’ Director of Communications, said, “We’re often told that we can better understand a person if we walk a mile in their shoes. While that may not be physically possible, our book, film, and TV winners allow us to do that through engagingly told stories that introduce us to people and places different from our own, yet relatable in a variety of ways.”

The Christophers, a nonprofit founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. More information about The Christophers is available at www.christophers.org.