Austen Everett Foundation – I Play for Match
OL Reign’s home match last Sunday against the Orlando Pride was an “I Play for” match, dedicated to children fighting cancer, through the club’s longtime partnership with the Austen Everett Foundation. The Austen Everett foundation works to empower kids in their fight against cancer through the strength and support of professional and collegiate athletic teams.
Typically, OL Reign partners with the foundation to participate in the AEF Honorary Team Captain Program, where a child battling cancer becomes the "Honorary Team Captain” for a day and is provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to benefit from the powerful support that a team environment can provide. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, things are a little bit different this year.
The “I Play for” match honored 20 children battling cancer. Each OL Reign player warmed up wearing a special shirt with the name of the child they played for in the match. The players each learned all about the child they are played for during the match, and the child learned about the player wearing their name and playing for them in the match. To make this match even more special, it took place on September 26, the last weekend of September, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Just before the pandemic hit, the Austen Everett Foundation was on track to benefit over 600 kids in 2020. Because of Covid restrictions, things had to change a little bit, so the idea of an “I Play for” match was born. These matches are special because the kids love having their names on the back of the players’ shirts and that the players know the kids’ stories.
The Austen Everett Foundation and OL Reign have been partnered since the Reign’s very first season. The Reign was the first professional team that AEF partnered with and since that partnership formed, over 75 teams throughout the nation have partnered with the foundation. The foundation is now located in nine cities across the country and have worked with over 1,300 children to organize on field experiences. The Reign alone have honored over 100 children fighting cancer.
The partnership runs so deep, that OL Reign defender Lauren “Lu” Barnes helped to create the concept of the “I Play for” matches.
“I got a call from sweet Lu Barnes. She said that the Austen Everett Foundation had been such a part of the Reign team for so long that everyone really wanted to find something we could do to carry this on during these times. So, we discussed a few things, and she really loved the concept of having an “I Play for” match,” said June Leahy, Austen’s mother and Executive Director of the foundation.
“An important part of these matches is the spotlight put on honoring these kids battling cancer. Before, there was the assumption that kids were just really sick and couldn’t do anything but stay home in bed. Granted, they may be at certain points, but as Austen used to say, “I’m not sick, I just have cancer.” It’s really beautiful that OL Reign has really enabled people to see a different side of childhood cancer and honors these kids as the strong individuals that they are,” said Leahy.
What many may not realize, is these opportunities are mutually beneficial. Everyone sees what these athletes have done for the children battling cancer, but on the flip side, these children have made a lasting impact on these athletes.
“The transformation that you see with these kids when they are on the field with the athletes is incredible. They are so nervous on the sidelines, but then you’ve got a Lu Barnes or Jess Fishlock who takes them by the hand and walks them out to the refs to call the coin toss and then jump in the team picture. For a lot of these kids, it’s really been lifechanging,” said Leahy.
Founded in 2009, AEF was created to improve the lives of children battling cancer by creating an alliance with collegiate and professional sport organizations in the community. Austen Everett, once a young female athlete, founded the organization while she was battling cancer. She was a student athlete at the University of Miami, playing goalkeeper for the Women's Soccer team. Everett valued the importance athletics and teamwork can have in the fight against cancer. Her dream was to show children that cancer should not define who they are.
She recognized how powerful that alliance with the team is and how it helped her through her own battle. She saw the connection between athletes and how they strive for excellence and their natural tenacity and drive, and how those things are not dissimilar from the way a kid fights cancer.
“It has been amazing through the years to watch the connection that develops between these kids and an athlete, and I am so grateful for the partnership with OL Reign that has opened so many doors,” said Leahy.
You can learn more about the Austen Everett Foundation and their mission, as well as additional ways to support the foundation here.