I am resurrecting this blog to bring you an important public service announcement.
Last night I was coaching my Special Olympics basketball team. Well, to be honest, I was standing in the middle of the court being angry at the "head coach" (he gave himself that title) because he makes it obvious that he believes the only thing I am good for is rebounding while the kids practice shooting. There are four coaches and I am the only female, so while "head coach" gathers his man team to explain how practice will run, I play with the kids and wait for him to impart his wisdom on me when they are done talking business. So I'm standing around just being pissed off that I miss my very favorite practice of the week to help this team (I heart Wednesday speed practice) and thinking that I will email the SO coordinator when I get home and tell him I'm not going back and head to speed next week when my thoughts are interrupted by Kathryn, a favorite of mine, asking "Is that a nail in your nose?".
True story.
And because that is far from being the weirdest thing those kids have asked me, it only phased me enough to cause me to look around to put a face with the voice.
And that is when I noticed that I was surrounded by little girls. Every little girl in my group was standing around me just staring and smiling. And when I thought about it I realized that it is always like that. They are always jockeying for position and trying to stand closer to me than the other girls, yelling my name above the noise to tell me a story about their day at school, or just giving me a shy smile when I hand them a basketball.
It hit me like a ton of bricks- it MATTERS to them that I am there! It matters that one of their coaches is a girl just like them. Even if I am worthless to the dumb head coach, I just might be the most important person on the court for these girls.
It is so simple, but I never thought about it before so I thought maybe you hadn't either :)
I think that as women we have a responsibility to mentor little girls. I'm especially looking at you rollergirls! Our sport BREEDS the qualities that I think we need to teach young girls- independence, self-confidence, perseverance, the list could go on and on. Roller derby taught me those qualities and I can teach them to little girls so that they get a head start on being bad ass- how cool is that???
Here are links to three organizations that I am involved with and I know that all of them need more volunteers:
http://gotrtriangle.org/
http://www.bbbstriangle.org/site/c.dwKWLjO6LsKcF/b.6235163/k.EF01/Home_Page.htm
http://www.sonc.net/
I know that derby (and life) keeps us busy, but it is SO IMPORTANT to give back and I can't think of a better way to do that than to make a difference in a kid's life. I can tell you a million stories about how being involved with kids has changed me for the better and I just realized last night that maybe it changes them too :)
PS. Just in case any men read this (pretty sure I know at least 4 guys), BBBS is ALWAYS looking for Big Brothers. When I signed up to be a Big Sister 4 years ago, the wait for little boys to get a big brother was several years long. Do it!
