With the World Cup just days away, millions of Canadians are preparing their bags, tickets, flags, and soccer balls. Among them are Deanna Zumwalt, founder and board chair of Calgary Wild FC, and her adopted daughter, Fabie.
A Historic Trip to the World Cup
On June 12, the duo will fly to the United States to witness two historic matches for Haiti: against Scotland in Boston on June 13, followed by a showdown with Brazil in Philadelphia on June 19. This marks the first time Haiti has qualified for the World Cup in 50 years, making the journey deeply personal for the family.
An Emotional Connection to Haiti
Zumwalt and her partner adopted Fabie from Haiti around the time of the 2010 earthquake, when she was just two years old. Now 18, Fabie does not remember being airlifted out of the country or meeting her adoptive parents in Ottawa. However, Zumwalt vividly recalls holding her for the first time. “You see pictures of them growing up and then it’s surreal when you see them in person, because they’ve always been a picture,” she said.
Six years earlier, the couple had adopted Fabie’s elder twin siblings, Monique and Joe. Zumwalt remembers a poignant moment: “I vividly remember pulling into a gas station in Haiti and seeing a younger man and saying to my husband, he’s got my babies. It was the same young man who brought Fabie to us.”
A Passion for Soccer
By age four, Fabie had taken up soccer and has since competed in numerous tournaments across Alberta. She will attend Trinity Western University in the fall, where she will continue playing the sport. “It’s been the one sport I’ve loved playing my whole life,” Fabie said.
Football is the national sport of Haiti, and Zumwalt describes the culture as passionate. “They live and die by it. It’s a country where there’s not a lot of happy things all the time, so to have something like that to unite them — pretty incredible.” Neither mother nor daughter has returned to Haiti since the adoption, making the upcoming matches especially emotional. “It’ll be overwhelming,” Zumwalt said.
From Youth Club to Professional League
The idea for Calgary’s first professional women’s soccer team originated from Fabie’s own club, the Calgary Foothills Wild FC. The club asked Zumwalt to help establish the league. “They had helped do that for young men in the city by helping to bring the Cavalry, and so when they approached me and said, ‘hey, would you help with this,’ I said yeah,” Zumwalt recalled.
The initiative brought together her three worlds: her career, her athletic passions, and her family. “Being a mom, a CEO and a former athlete myself, I knew the impact it had on young girls. This means more to girls than it does to boys.”
