Fall Frenzy photo album

On a cool fall Saturday, action dominated a three-tier landscape at Trinity Washington University’s athletic fields.

Tier 1: DC SCORES teams decked out in their soccer uniforms – a different color for each school – rotated between stations made possible by myriad volunteer groups. Every 20 minutes, they switched. Soccer shooting with D.C. United, and autographs with professional goalie Travis Worra; Mad Libs with City Kids; “catch or head it” with Grant Thornton LLP; relay races with November Project DC. Wherever you looked, volunteers led activities that kept each group of poet-athletes engaged and smiling.

When the opportunity came to nominate a coach for a Hispanic Heritage Month award from the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, it was a clear consensus that Coach John Guzmán was the perfect choice.

Coach Guzmán is a DC native who has been a part of the Bancroft Elementary School community since he attended himself in the late 1990s. As the oldest of six children to Peruvian immigrants, Guzmán also attended Bell Multicultural High School and served in the Army National Guard as an aircraft technician.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jake Lloyd 202.393.6999 x313 jlloyd@dcscores.org

Award-winning nonprofit shows commitment to program expansion with additions

[Washington, DC] – [September 29, 2017] – DC SCORES took another big step towards expansion by bringing eight corporate leaders onto its Board of Directors. These leaders, and the 14 Board members they are joining, are charged with growing DC SCORES sustainably and responsibly to serve every child in DC in need of a team. Over the past five years, DC SCORES, which provides free afterschool programs and summer camps to kids in high-poverty neighborhoods, has grown from 750 kids at 22 sites to over 2500 kids at 59 sites across the District. The new Board additions come on the heels of the organization winning three awards for nonprofit management – the AIM for Excellence Award (for best-managed nonprofit in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area); the Center for Nonprofit Advancement Board Leadership Award (for best nonprofit Board in the region); and inclusion in the 2017-18 Catalogue for Philanthropy as “one of the best small charities in the Greater Washington region.”

Every season, kids in DC get the opportunity to build teams with returning teammates and new additions with the same goal of being the best team possible. For the DC SCORES staff, this is no different.

As new opportunities guided some long-time staff members on different paths, the DC SCORES staff is now a bigger and even more impressive team that’s excited for the seasons to come.

Nine new staff members joined the team, filling in vacant roles and also creating brand new roles within the organization. The members bring fresh ideas and come from diverse backgrounds, which will help guide us in continuing to elevate our high-quality programming across Washington, DC.

Today DC SCORES kicks off its 23rd fall SCORES season!

For the next 12 weeks, more than 2,200 students in all 8 wards in DC will form teams on the field and in the classroom by participating in soccer and poetry and creative writing activities. DC SCORES’ poet-athletes are instilled the core values of Teamwork, Leadership, and Commitment while also emphasizing the importance of sportsmanship.

What do you get when you combine DC SCORES, guest speakers, workshops, coffee, and 100 coaches and volunteers? COACH KICKOFF!

View the complete Coach Kickoff photo album on Flickr

As tradition dictates, DC SCORES gathered coaches and volunteers before programming starts for a fun-filled Saturday on August 26 at Truesdell Education Campus. From 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, new and returning volunteers and coaches showed their enthusiasm for another successful SCORES season by actively participating in all of the ice breakers and informational sessions throughout the day.

DC SCORES hosted a five-week long soccer and arts camp at Truesdell Education Campus. Rising second to sixth-grade students participated in this free summer camp from June 26 - July 28.

(View our complete 2017 Summer Camp photo album)

In the longest running DC SCORES summer camp of the season, Truesdell Education Campus was the home of the only soccer and arts camp of summer SCORES.

For five weeks, the education campus in NW kept the minds and bodies of DC kids active through soccer, arts and crafts, field trips, and many more fun activities. More than just giving kids something to do during the summer months, this camp offered new learning opportunities for everyone.

Sometimes I wish I could hit rewind, Moonwalk that yellow brick road Go back in time and, Be a kid again Cuz

It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under Uh uh uh under

The riveting opening lines of A’dora Willis’ original poem from Our Words Our City last February are not, however, an apt description of her life.

A’dora, 18, doesn’t need to hit rewind or be a kid again. The DC SCORES alumna and recent high school graduate has her future figured out. On a recent afternoon during a rare break from her summer jobs triumvirate of doctor office work, daycare work, and teaching karate lessons, A’dora matter-of-factly laid out her plans.

(View the complete 2017 Summer Camp photo album)

There is no doubt that once kids get to experience what DC SCORES is all about they become like family.

For some kids, there’s some hesitancy at first about joining, and then there are others like Rey C. who count down the days to become a part of DC SCORES.

For the second straight month, the Center for Nonprofit Advancement chose DC SCORES for a distinguished award validating the leadership and structure of the after-school program.

At an event Thursday morning, DC SCORES received the Board Leadership Award for nonprofits with a budget under $2 million. The award “was developed with support from area experts to recognize and spotlight outstanding leadership from Boards of Directors of Washington-area nonprofit organizations.”

Inspired by her father, Claire Constant grew up wanting to help others. Thanks to her accomplishments on the soccer field, the rising senior at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria is now making a tangible difference locally.

After being named the 2016-17 Gatorade Virginia Girls Soccer Player of the Year, Constant learned of DC SCORES and chose to designate the organization for the $1,000 award — an amount that provides a full year of programming for an at-risk child in the District.

“I had heard reference of DC SCORES and then when I saw the website and the impact you have on DC children’s lives, I was excited to support the organization,” Constant said.

(View our 2017 Summer Camp photo album)

L’Enfant Plaza will soon be home to the International Spy Museum, and our Truesdell campers had the opportunity to check out the new site thanks to Clark Construction.

The excited campers spent the first part of their field trip hanging out with a couple of Clark employees that gave some fun facts on the new museum. The kids also learned about other notable buildings in the city that were built by Clark.