Inside Women’s Soccer’s Workout for BLM Initiative: Part II

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Once Brown women's soccer decided to move forward with its Workout for BLM initiative, rising seniors Kayla Thompson and Sydney Cummings focused on organizing the effort to make it as effective as possible.

After Thompson came up with the original idea, she reached out to Bears head coach Kia McNeill and Cummings to engage the entire team in organizing the effort.

"As soon as we decided this was something that we wanted to do we wanted to put our full effort into it and make it intentional," Thompson said.

Team members immediately jumped in, helping to create the content – including the logo and video – that made the initiative a success. Part of that effort included researching the black lives of those lost to police brutality and creating bios as part of the video.

For Cummings, the video became a key way for others to educate themselves and participate in a meaningful way.

"Something that happens a lot with black people in general is that you feel super exhausted as time goes on because people are constantly asking 'What can I do to help?'," Cummings said. "We wanted to create a platform where we did all the work, and then it is in everybody else's hands. What you can do is learn, what the video, and participate."

Dozens of intercollegiate athletic teams took part in the initiative, including several other teams at Brown. The effort even reached beyond the college sports space as one mother commented on the team's GoFundMe page that she did the workout with her two young boys.

For the fundraising aspect, the team was initially unsure what to put down for the goal – trying to determine whether to aim high and miss the target or to begin lower and hit the goal. In the end the group decided to work to create as much participation as possible.

After starting with an initial goal of $10,000 dollars, the team increased the goal twice, ending up with $27,939.

"That was really important for our team," Cummings said. "We could have settled and checked the box for us – 'oh great, we hit our goal' – but that's not who we are or what we do."

Brown University Athletics

Inside Women’s Soccer’s Workout for BLM Initiative: Part II

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