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Helping Girls Reach Up! To Be Successful Women
Brandi Chastain will launch the Reach Up! foundation with a testimonial soccer game on Oct. 2 at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., with all proceeds going to the foundation.
Jul 16, 2010 12:56:00 PM
By Giovanni Albanese Jr.
Any soccer fan will remember the moment for as long as they live. It was July 10, 1999, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The United States and China women’s national soccer teams were at a standstill, deadlocked at zeroes heading into the penalty shootout to determine the winner of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Carla Overbeck, Joy Fawcett, Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm all put in their shots for USA; Xie Huilin, Qui Haiyan, Zhang Ouying and Sun Wen put home goals for China; and Liu Ailing missed for China to set the stage for Brandi Chastain.
With the penalties all even at 4-apiece, Chastain needed to put her opportunity in the back of the net to clinch the World Cup. She calmly slotted it in the net and proceeded to take her jersey off, fall to her knees and clench both her arms in celebratory fist pumps as the whole world watched her shed tears of joy in her sports bra. She just won the World Cup for her country on her own soil.
But not all girls will grow up to play for the United States’ women’s national team and score a game-winning goal in the World Cup. Chastain knows that. And that‘s why she‘s starting up her foundation, Reach Up!
But Reach Up! wasn’t possible at first. It all started small, and locally for the San Jose, Calif., native Chastain. After the World Cup in 1999, a women’s professional soccer league, Women’s United Soccer Association, formed. It lasted until 2003. It was then Chastain, as well as soccer star Julie Foudy and former San Jose Cyber Rays (WUSA) General Manager Marlene Bjornsrud wanted to make sure that women’s athletics should remain prominent.
Together, they created the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI), which is a public benefit, nonprofit corporation founded in 2005 that strives to “create programs and partnerships through which women athletes bring health, hope and wholeness to our community.” (For an entire overview of BAWSI and its efforts, visit the website.)
“We started BAWSI because we didn’t want that feeling (of women’s athletics) to go away,” said Chastain. “It turned out very positive for third to fifth graders.”
With BAWSI in mind, it spawned the concept of the Reach Up! foundation, which Chastain, along with her friend, Dr. Joan Oloff, pieced together.
“We share the same idea that girls need a place to go that is safe, positive and supportive,” said Chastain. “The Internet can be a dangerous place. We wanted to create a place where all the good things I experienced can be handed down to these young girls so they can be leaders and become examples on how to go out and be the best they can be.”
Reach Up! will be an Internet platform, allowing girls into their early teens, along with their mothers, to interact with peers, mentors and celebrities about health, athleticism, confidence and reaching one’s goals. But, according to Chastain, it’s not just about athletics.
“It’s really not driven athletically. It’s about music, writing, science and math; whatever girls are drawn to,” Chastain noted. “Girls in that tween kind of age are looking for that model. If they can find other peers that are drawn to what they are drawn to, they’ll stick with it.”
Chastain and Oloff are still working on fine-tuning the image and sharpening the mission. However, they know that “We want to be a vehicle to get those girls to Reach Up!” Chastain said, and have “our foundation support places like BAWSI.”
Ultimately, Chastain hopes for Reach Up! to be an inspiring site for young girls.
“Our goal is being able to have a branch that will raise money to help support other organizations to do good work for other girls,” said Chastain. “When you see that brand, hopefully it is inspiring, having girls say ‘I can do that.’ That’s the kind of response we hope to achieve. But that just the beginning.”
And as Reach Up! continues to grow, what better way to help it grow than putting together a testimonial soccer game for Chastain to help raise funds for it? On October 2, that’s just what Chastain will do, right in her backyard at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. -- former home of her WUSA San Jose CyberRays and Women’s Professional Soccer’s FC Gold Pride (Chastain played in Gold Pride’s inaugural season of WPS).
“I love playing,” said Chastain, geared up for the game, despite it being several months away. “And Santa Clara University is my favorite stadium to play in.
Tickets for the Brandi Chastain Testimonial Soccer Game, which will feature several soccer icons such as Foudy, Hamm and Lilly, among others, can be purchased at Chastain’s official website or the official site of Reach Up! with all proceeds going to the Reach Up! foundation.
“For (Foudy, Hamm, Lilly, etc.) to come, play the game, and support soccer is great, and at the same time, they could change someone’s life by just putting on their cleats,” said Chastain. “For me, it’s to gather a group of people and give the crowd an entertaining game.”
In addition, prior to the game, Chastain will hold a one-hour, multi-age sports clinic available for 200 soccer players, $50 per player, and can be reserved at Chastain's or the Reach Up! websites; and at the game, there will be stations collecting lightly-used soccer gear to donate -- through the U.S. Soccer Foundation -- to communities in need.
But for Chastain, she’s hoping that this game will help someone down the road of life.
“Ultimately this fun, exciting game will help someone change or enhance their life,” said Chastain. Kickoff at Buck Shaw Stadium on the campus of Santa Clara University is at 6 p.m. PT.
For more on Women's Professional Soccer, visit Goal.com's WPS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
Carla Overbeck, Joy Fawcett, Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm all put in their shots for USA; Xie Huilin, Qui Haiyan, Zhang Ouying and Sun Wen put home goals for China; and Liu Ailing missed for China to set the stage for Brandi Chastain.
With the penalties all even at 4-apiece, Chastain needed to put her opportunity in the back of the net to clinch the World Cup. She calmly slotted it in the net and proceeded to take her jersey off, fall to her knees and clench both her arms in celebratory fist pumps as the whole world watched her shed tears of joy in her sports bra. She just won the World Cup for her country on her own soil.
But not all girls will grow up to play for the United States’ women’s national team and score a game-winning goal in the World Cup. Chastain knows that. And that‘s why she‘s starting up her foundation, Reach Up!
But Reach Up! wasn’t possible at first. It all started small, and locally for the San Jose, Calif., native Chastain. After the World Cup in 1999, a women’s professional soccer league, Women’s United Soccer Association, formed. It lasted until 2003. It was then Chastain, as well as soccer star Julie Foudy and former San Jose Cyber Rays (WUSA) General Manager Marlene Bjornsrud wanted to make sure that women’s athletics should remain prominent.
Together, they created the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI), which is a public benefit, nonprofit corporation founded in 2005 that strives to “create programs and partnerships through which women athletes bring health, hope and wholeness to our community.” (For an entire overview of BAWSI and its efforts, visit the website.)
“We started BAWSI because we didn’t want that feeling (of women’s athletics) to go away,” said Chastain. “It turned out very positive for third to fifth graders.”
With BAWSI in mind, it spawned the concept of the Reach Up! foundation, which Chastain, along with her friend, Dr. Joan Oloff, pieced together.
“We share the same idea that girls need a place to go that is safe, positive and supportive,” said Chastain. “The Internet can be a dangerous place. We wanted to create a place where all the good things I experienced can be handed down to these young girls so they can be leaders and become examples on how to go out and be the best they can be.”
Reach Up! will be an Internet platform, allowing girls into their early teens, along with their mothers, to interact with peers, mentors and celebrities about health, athleticism, confidence and reaching one’s goals. But, according to Chastain, it’s not just about athletics.
“It’s really not driven athletically. It’s about music, writing, science and math; whatever girls are drawn to,” Chastain noted. “Girls in that tween kind of age are looking for that model. If they can find other peers that are drawn to what they are drawn to, they’ll stick with it.”
Chastain and Oloff are still working on fine-tuning the image and sharpening the mission. However, they know that “We want to be a vehicle to get those girls to Reach Up!” Chastain said, and have “our foundation support places like BAWSI.”
Ultimately, Chastain hopes for Reach Up! to be an inspiring site for young girls.
“Our goal is being able to have a branch that will raise money to help support other organizations to do good work for other girls,” said Chastain. “When you see that brand, hopefully it is inspiring, having girls say ‘I can do that.’ That’s the kind of response we hope to achieve. But that just the beginning.”
And as Reach Up! continues to grow, what better way to help it grow than putting together a testimonial soccer game for Chastain to help raise funds for it? On October 2, that’s just what Chastain will do, right in her backyard at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. -- former home of her WUSA San Jose CyberRays and Women’s Professional Soccer’s FC Gold Pride (Chastain played in Gold Pride’s inaugural season of WPS).
“I love playing,” said Chastain, geared up for the game, despite it being several months away. “And Santa Clara University is my favorite stadium to play in.
Tickets for the Brandi Chastain Testimonial Soccer Game, which will feature several soccer icons such as Foudy, Hamm and Lilly, among others, can be purchased at Chastain’s official website or the official site of Reach Up! with all proceeds going to the Reach Up! foundation.
“For (Foudy, Hamm, Lilly, etc.) to come, play the game, and support soccer is great, and at the same time, they could change someone’s life by just putting on their cleats,” said Chastain. “For me, it’s to gather a group of people and give the crowd an entertaining game.”
In addition, prior to the game, Chastain will hold a one-hour, multi-age sports clinic available for 200 soccer players, $50 per player, and can be reserved at Chastain's or the Reach Up! websites; and at the game, there will be stations collecting lightly-used soccer gear to donate -- through the U.S. Soccer Foundation -- to communities in need.
But for Chastain, she’s hoping that this game will help someone down the road of life.
“Ultimately this fun, exciting game will help someone change or enhance their life,” said Chastain. Kickoff at Buck Shaw Stadium on the campus of Santa Clara University is at 6 p.m. PT.
For more on Women's Professional Soccer, visit Goal.com's WPS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
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