Washington Spirit Forward Ashley Hatch Calls on the Spirit Community to Protect DC SCORES Programming
Hatch writes about what DC SCORES means to her and why our city’s kids need support now.
By Ashley Hatch
When I came to DC in 2018, I instantly knew this community was special. Spirit fans have stood by our team, and by me as a player, through rough times and very special times. DC is a special place because of you.
DC SCORES was one of my very first and favorite connections to the city. For 30 years, it has given kids in our community the chance to gain confidence and find their voice through something we all love, soccer, and something we could all use more of, poetry and service. I was so inspired by the mission that I joined the board four years ago, and I haven’t looked back.
This unique combination is creating our future leaders. Independent data shows poet-athletes are safer, healthier and more confident than their peers. They show up to class more consistently and thrive academically. And they grow up committed to building stronger schools, vibrant neighborhoods and a brighter city.
One thing the poet-athletes of DC SCORES have always taught me is how important it is to use your voice. So I’m writing to use mine, and to ask you, our loyal and beloved Spirit community, to help our city.
This fall, for the first time in 15 years, some poet-athletes didn’t have a program to come back to. As DC SCORES Executive Director Katrina Owens wrote in an open letter in August, significant financial challenges forced the organization to cut its Junior SCORES program at 20 schools and pause programming entirely at nine schools. That’s over 1,000 kids who lost their team, their coach and their safe place after the final bell.
The program didn’t stop working, it just got more expensive, and philanthropy hasn’t kept pace with that inflation. It costs about $1,400 to serve one poet-athlete for a full year, nearly 50 percent more than when in-person programming restarted after the pandemic, because DC SCORES removes every barrier to participation and doesn’t cut corners on quality. Meanwhile, local government funding has shrunk, competition for dollars throughout the nonprofit sector has increased, and the World Cup boost so many hoped for has largely passed by the groups doing the daily work with kids.
As a Spirit player and DC SCORES board member, I feel it is my responsibility to do everything I can to protect this programming for our kids. And as a new mom, I know how important it is to have a village to help raise our children. For so many DC families, DC SCORES is part of that village.
I see the way you show up for us every weekend at Audi Field. Whether it’s after a Spirit game, at One Night One Goal, at one of my adult soccer clinics, or waving at me from the next car as I drive around the city, you show up for our community. Your loyalty is unwavering, and right now the future of DC needs you.
So I’m asking you to commit to supporting our poet-athletes. Donate to DC SCORES’ Poet-Athlete Impact Fund. If you can support a poet-athlete at $1,400 per year ($117/month), we’d love to have it. If your company can sponsor an entire school at $40,000/year, I promise it will be a partnership your employees and clients will cherish. If you aren’t in a position to give financially, volunteer your time. However you choose to support this amazing organization, I’m asking you to go to www.dcscores.org and do it.
I’ve used my voice. Now I hope you’ll show up for these kids the way you’ve always shown up for us.
Ashley Hatch is a forward for the Washington Spirit and a member of the DC SCORES board of directors.
