Hi there, executive director Jen here.
It’s hard to believe we are already nearing the end of July. I spent the past few weeks doing what half the planet was doing: watching the World Cup (and several of our board members were able to attend the games in person)! I cheered for teams I had no business cheering for, rooted for the underdogs, and pulled the hardest for Cabo Verde’s veteran goalkeeper and vice-captain, Josimar Jose Evora Dias, better known as Vozinha. As The Athletic put it, he “was already a legend.” Most of the world outside of Cape Verde just didn’t know it yet.
Watching it all, I kept coming back to one thought. When you step onto a pitch, a track, a court, or a field, it does not matter what language you speak, what you look like, or where you are from. You are part of a team, you belong, and when you put on that uniform the pride you feel makes anywhere in the world feel like home.
I learned that on a basketball court in the middle of Mexico City. I visited in 1998 with my high school teammate Katie Sorrell, who went on to play at the University of Northern Iowa. We barely spoke the language and we towered over everyone there (Katie’s 6’4″). None of it mattered. We had a ball and a court, and by the end of the day we had friends.
Sport connects us. We win together, we fail together, we cry the happy tears and the hard ones. In a stretch of time when a lot of things feel heavy, sport still pulls millions of strangers into the same room to cheer for the same thing. Nothing else does that. And here is the part I can’t stop thinking about: what about girls who might never get to experience this feeling? This is the exact reason Sportswomen of Colorado exists. Our mission to promote, honor, and empower girls and women in sport goes back to our founders, who knew how important sport is for building confidence, purpose and leadership skills. It’s a reminder that no matter where a girl lands in the world, wherever she picks up her sport, she is home.
Thank you for making that possible. Now for the good stuff, and there is plenty of it.
She’s headed to Nationals: cheer loud, Abbey Glynn is racing in New York City. Our Camps, Clinics and Community Outreach Coordinator, Abbey Glynn, is packing her spikes and heading to the Outdoor National Track & Field Championships in New York City. Each and every one of us will be clapping loudly for her from Colorado!
If you’re new here, Abbey started with us as an intern three years ago. She is also a former CU Buffs hurdler, a world champion as a member of USA Track and Field’s 4×400 relay team, and an Olympic Trials competitor. The students she works with have no idea how fast she is. They just know she shows up for them, and that she will race them!
That is what we mean when we say promote, honor, and empower. Sometimes all three show up in the same person.
We sat down with Abbey before she left for New York. Hear where she came from, what the kids teach her, and what it feels like to race for Team USA. Watch Abbey’s interview, and subscribe to our channel at youtube.com/@sportswomenofcolorado.
Fall clinics are booking now. Partner with us. Here is my ask, and we are excited about it! We are lining up our fall Camps, Clinics and Community Outreach calendar right now, and there are opportunities for schools, college athletic programs, community organizations, corporate partners, and foundations. Volunteers, too! Partnering can look like any of these:
- Host a clinic at your school or facility during the school day
- Support a clinic financially so cost never decides who gets to play
- Volunteer: Are you a college athlete or coach? Reach out to partner
- Sponsor equipment that stays with the school after we leave
- Back our youth programming as a corporate or foundation partner
Every clinic is free for the kids, held during the school day at Title I partner schools, and led by college women who remember being nine years old and falling in love with their sport, and who want every kid in that gym to feel it too. One conversation is all it takes to get started: become a partner. Prefer email? Reach us at community@sportswomenofcolorado.org or Abbey at campsandclinics@sportswomenofcolorado.org.
Big announcement: we’re awarding college scholarships. New this year! We are excited to announce: beginning at our annual Awards Celebration, Sportswomen of Colorado will award college scholarships to young women in sport.
Application details and eligibility requirements are coming later this year, and I promise you will hear it here first. For now, know this: after 52 years of honoring Colorado’s sportswomen on stage, we are going to start investing directly in where they go next.
Know a young athlete who should apply? Share this news with her and tell her to stay close. And if you or your organization would like to partner with us on scholarship offerings, I would love to hear from you. Reach out at community@sportswomenofcolorado.org.
Community spotlight: The Be Like Ellie Foundation. Some organizations you admire from a distance. This one we get to call a partner. The Be Like Ellie Foundation was founded by Carly and Josh Berg of Boulder to honor their daughter Ellie Pearl, a little girl who loved music, sports, dance, and connecting with people, and who they lost at just six years old. Their guiding belief is one we share: “simple acts of kindness create positive change.” Through kindness programs for schools, sports teams, and organizations across Colorado, they are building exactly that. They are also one of our Platinum Sponsors, which tells you everything about who they are.
On Friday, October 9, they’re hosting their 3rd Annual Benefit Concert at Roots Music Project in Boulder. Two live bands, food, a full bar, free parking, and every dollar going toward kindness. Doors at 6:30, music at 7:00. Go, bring some friends, and be loud about it. Get concert tickets.
Mark your calendar: CBS Colorado’s Girls in the Game is going virtual this year, and it will be back in person next year. Follow along with Romi Bean and the team at CBS Colorado here.
Thank you, Platinum Sponsors. Free clinics, scholarships, and 52 years of honoring Colorado women happen because these partners show up: Stapp Interstate Toyota, a family-owned dealership in Frederick that has served Front Range families for generations; The Be Like Ellie Foundation, a Boulder family honoring their daughter Ellie by spreading kindness through grants and community programs; CAHA: Colorado Amateur Hockey Association, the home of amateur hockey in Colorado since 1972; Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the keeper of Colorado’s sports story; Finn’s Army, a Denver family’s answer to tragedy, showing up with meals, funeral support, and grief counseling when a Colorado family faces the unimaginable; and The Harris Law Firm, a Colorado family law firm that has spent 30 years standing beside families in their hardest seasons. Want your organization on this list? Tell us you’re interested and we’ll reach out as soon as sponsorship opportunities open.
Stay in our huddle. The stories don’t stop between newsletters (and I’m trying to do better at updating you all). Follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, share our mission with one person who loves girls in sport, and if you have a few hours this fall, volunteer at a clinic. You will leave with a full heart, I can promise you that.
If you’d like to help more Colorado girls find that feeling, a gift of any size funds free clinics, equipment for Title I schools, and now, college scholarships. No pressure. We are just glad you’re here.
Thank you for reading, for cheering, and for being part of this. The months ahead are full ones: fall clinics in new schools, scholarship news, and the road to our 53rd Awards Celebration. I can’t wait to share all of it with you.
Until then, find a girl or a woman competing at something this summer and be loud about it. After all, it costs nothing.
♥ Jen
Jennifer Anderson-Ehrlich, Executive Director, Sportswomen of Colorado
