FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution midfielder Zak Boggs received the MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Year award on Wednesday for his charitable work wit Children’s Hospital in Boston. But to hear him tell it, it’s symptomatic of being in the Revs organization, where teammates frequently visit the hospital and ownership promotes humanitarian work as a priority.
“Look at the organization we have here with Myra Kraft and everything (she did) and everything the Krafts continue to do,” Boggs told MLSsoccer.com earlier this week. “Not only with humanitarian things around this area, but also with Boston Children's. I just talked to Mr. Jonathan Kraft and he was telling me about all of the stuff he does. You don't even realize half of the stuff he does. We know a lot of the same people. It's really cool to connect like that.”
Boggs’ teammates volunteers in a cancer research laboratory at the hospital, where his biology background at South Florida and his previous volunteer work at a Tampa hospital allows him to help technicians at Dr. Marsha Moses’ lab perform the tasks they need to complete in their pursuit of a cure to cancer.
“It's just something I love to do,” Boggs said. “I love to be around science. It's cool to be around soccer in the mornings – which I love – to something completely different in the afternoon. It's been a good opportunity.”
Although Boggs emerged from a group including Houston midfielder Brad Davis and San Jose striker Chris Wondolowski to win the award, he paid tribute to their efforts and the organization as a whole to help various concerns across the country.
“First of all, it's just nice to be mentioned in such company with MLS W.O.R.K.S. and all of the other great people who are up for the award,” Boggs said. “Just all of the great things that have been going on and all of the great things that the organization does. There are many different ways that they achieve their goals. It's pretty cool to be involved in something like that in the big picture.”
