Sticks and Strength Club aims to empower young girls in the community through the sport of lacrosse while raising money and awareness for domestic violence organizations.
Led by co-presidents senior Isa Davis-Astrada and junior Jenny Brailovsky alongside athletic director and sponsor Al Lightsey, Sticks and Strength is quickly growing. In its first year, the club has roughly 50 members and has built a successful Instagram following of over 150 students. “One hundred percent [join], especially if interested in lacrosse,” Brailovsky said.
Sticks and Strength will hold meetings in room 126 during advisory on the first Monday of every month. The club plans to make and sell LiveLoveLax bracelets and T-shirts as well as organize clinics and additional fundraisers for the One Love foundation.
LiveLoveLax and the One Love foundation first started in 2010 after the tragic death of Yeardley Love. Love grew up in the DMV area and played lacrosse at the University of Virginia. Her on and off boyfriend of over two years, George Huguely, was a fellow UVA lacrosse player. On May 3, 2010, Love was found unresponsive in her college apartment. Just three weeks shy of her graduation, Hughley had murdered Love in a terrifying act of domestic violence.
Davis-Astrada was first inspired by LiveLoveLax and the prevalent issue of domestic violence at a local lacrosse tournament. Having played sports her whole life she felt that the foundation could inspire young girls, specifically athletes. According to the club’s Instagram page, “Instead of DV (domestic violence) ending we have to teach girls how to avoid it. That is what we want to do.”
Sticks and Strength plans to hold lacrosse clinics, similar to Wootton Lacrosse Community Day, for elementary and middle school aged girls with the goal of expanding the sport of lacrosse through the greater community. The club will provide equipment and charge a $25 clinic fee (subject to change) that will be donated towards the girls’ lacrosse program and the One Love foundation. Last year, “[we] had a community day, and that’s where we kinda got inspired,” co-vice president and junior lacrosse player Maya Bellamy said.
Young girls will get the chance to go through stations and work on drills and challenges with the varsity girls’ lacrosse team, earning prizes and T-shirts along the way. Additional fundraisers will be held through bake sales and local restaurants with 10% of their profit going towards domestic violence organizations. Once these dates and details are finalized they will be shared through the Sticks and Strength Instagram page, @sticksandstrength.
Sticks and Strength supports the One Love foundation’s goal of teaching the signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships so individuals can quickly recognize warning signs in both their own relationship and the relationships of friends and peers. Long term, Sticks and Strength hopes to, “raise money and get young girls to continue playing lacrosse,” Davis-Astrada said.
