Showing Up with the Spirit: May Recap

Washington Spirit  |   June 7, 2024
Showing Up with the Spirit: May Recap Featured Image

Last month, the Spirit’s players as well as the club’s Community Impact and Community Development teams participated in various soccer events and community-building opportunities with residents from around the DMV region. These engagements underscored the importance of community impact in fostering strong, supportive relationships between the team and our region. Here’s a recap of May:

 

MSYSA Let’s Play!

Gabby Carle poses for a photo with four young girls in neon yellow pinnies.

On May 14 and May 28, Gabby Carle and Makenna Morris went out to two Montgomery County elementary schools to practice with kids in MSYSA’s Let’s Play! Initiative. For Makenna, the experience was personal—she visited the elementary school both her parents attended as children.

 

US Soccer Foundation’s DC Soccer Initiative Celebration

Hal Hershfelt dribbles a soccer ball towards a young boy.

On May 20, Andi Sullivan, Hal Hershfelt, and Kate Wiesner went out to Johnson Middle School to celebrate the 20 new mini pitches which have been built across the District through the US Soccer Foundation’s DC Soccer Initiative.

 

Goals for Girls

On May 29, Spirit players joined middle school girls from six different DC SCORES programs for the 2nd annual Goals for Girls clinic. Many of the schools in attendance are located east of the Anacostia River, a region where DC SCORES is actively working to build new pipelines for girls to participate in the sport outside of the pay-to-play system.

 

DC SCORES Jamboree

A group of young kids in blue soccer uniforms pose for a photo with Anna Heilferty.

Anna Heilferty showed her support for Excel Academy and all the other poet athletes at DC SCORES’ annual elementary school tournament and festival.

 

DCPS End of Year Celebration

The Community Development team was invited to DC Public School’s End of Year Celebration and had the opportunity to meet staff and families of the District. RaShauna Hamilton, Vice President of Community Development, and Maya Stephen, Grassroots Marketing Manager, sat down with a student from School Without Walls and talked through what it meant to him to be apart of the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council. Through this conversation, we learned how engaged local public school students are and their commitment to building community in and outside of their schools.

Spread the love