June 18, 2025 • 32 mins
ELLA is a non-profit organization that helps young female athletes of Hispanic/Latino descent to achieve their goal to attend college to help offset costs for families that are economically disadvantaged that includes charitable purposes. The program also helps those to empower leadership and discipline amongst the athletes that would lead to a positive life outcome and help offset costs to attend college athletic interviews. James Lott Jr speaks with Co Founder Patty Godoy. FACEBOOK: Ella TWITTER: @foundationella INSTAGRAM: @ella_sports_foundation www.ellasportsfoundation.org
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to another diition of extra connections. I'm
James Lot you to hear Jailja Media and we're all
about connection. And this person has a foundation, she's the
co founder of it that talks about connection also connecting
the right people to the right places. We're gonna talk
about that. It's an Ellen Sports Foundation or a Yeah Foundation.
(00:25):
I am I have Latino so I do you know?
AA is a nonprofit organization that helps young female athletes
of Hispanic Latino descents to achieve their goal to attend college.
That's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well they do.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
They help offset some of the costs for the families,
especially once you just don't have the money or enough
money to do it. As we know, college is expensive.
But their kids are good, they're good athletes. They can
get in, but they need some help, so they help
them with the boost. The program also helps those two
empowered leaderships. So now we're talking about working on their
mental side and scipline amongst the athletes that will lead
(01:01):
to a positive life outcome. Because yes, we don't just
want to send them off to college. We'll make sure
they're ready and they're out there. They had all the
challenges that happen. So we're gonna talk more about this
with Patty Goadi Chavico. How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I'm doing good? Good, How are you fine?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So congratulations on your foundation. We think it's a great idea.
And so because I know Okay, so I noticed it's
Hispanic Latino, because we know in our community, I'm also
part of the community.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
There's different names. People go a different names.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So you're like, anybody of that descent is welcome, right,
as long as they are female and that descent, they're available,
you're ready to help.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yes, we're inclusive of actually all girls. We primarily help
Latina and women of color, but we also are very
inclusive of all girls. I want to play sports?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Oh I like that. Of course I like that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, Well, I want to ask this just first off, bet,
were you a sports person?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yes, I was an athlete.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
When'd you play? What did you want? I know?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's my story is a bit.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I came to this country when I was twelve years old.
I was undocumented for nine years and when I played
in high school. That's where I played softball, Hollywood High
in LA.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Wait a minute, my seat, you're from La. Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
If about here. Hollywood High. That's where I went to
high school. And I always say that sports was an
outlet for me because we couldn't go freely to places
and so a lot of times for me, the only
outlet I had was playing sports, and so I played softball.
So I really value sports. And so I have four girls,
(02:42):
and so my girls, I always thought, oh my god,
I couldn't go further than high school because I had
to work and go to school at the same time.
But I couldn't play you know, post dot, but I
really really wanted to. And I always think that sports
has a lot of value for girls. It really helps work, ethics, responsibility.
He helps to just set goals for you in life.
(03:05):
So highly highly highly promoted. So that yeah, so I
do have a background, you know, playing example.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, I know I had friends with Holle I went
to Inglewood High. But I know friends. I know friends
with the Hollywood High and a friends with to Venice High.
I know friends, you know, Hamilton, all your goals out there,
you're from here.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yes, I'm sorry, right, but I read her bioflux, so
I didn't see that part. So I'm like that, like
that makes me just kind of smile someone from out
here when you so, what what did you We are
a couple of things that you got out of playing sports?
As we get in just talk, what are a couple
of things you got out of it?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So I quickly learned, you know, to be responsible because
we had to be on time. We had a we
had we have to have a structure, right, we had
a practice, we had to play, we have to go
to games. And on top of that, we had to
keep our grades up because if you don't have good grades,
you couldn't play. So it really gave me that autonomy
and independence and also an outlet to just kind of
to be myself and enjoy I really truly enjoy playing
(04:03):
the sport.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, teamwork. I played baseball soccer, which is just football.
It was just like there's it's a camaraderie with your teammates.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Belonging, you know, that that sense of like you belong
to something. And like I said, being here and undocumented
couldn't go places. But I did have a team. I
did have teammates and they were they were very welcoming
with me, and my coach was very welcoming too. But
one of the things that it was really for me.
I remember playing softball in the dirt penny shoes because
(04:35):
we couldn't afford my parents couldn't afford pleats, and so
I remember one year that somebody donated cleats for the
two teams, and I got these beautiful pony shoot you know, cleats,
and I was like, I treat them like gold. And
I remember thinking, oh my god, it's so amazing and
just gave me that power, you know, because for girls,
as one of the things that you know, if you
look good, you're gonna play good. And so when you
(04:59):
you know, when you're play any underserved communities, a lot
of times you don't have that hand me down equipment,
You don't have anything, and so you don't feel good
about playing. But I remember that I felt like a
superstar with those cleats.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I mean when I was in Englewood, it was it
was a really bad neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It was very now it's a little different, but it
was very much underserved.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, times we had to share equipment, yes, you know
what it was the things you didn't have to share, yeah, yes, exactly.
But the fun thing was you played other teams, other
schools and so big. We get to go other You
get to go other places, now right, that's much fun. Yes,
I do agree with you completely. That's great. So we
(05:41):
got we had kind of okay, we gotta go from there,
and I want to get from there.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We have your daughters, like four girls, I have two.
I thought that was enough.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes or no, a strong woman, you're all right. So
then so that any of them start to show any
interesting playing sports?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, yeah, So immediately for me it was like a
no brainer. I had to put him in sports. And
I actually put all four girls in sports, but you know,
something to take it a little more serious another and
that it is not sports, not for everybody. But they
all played up until high school. But one of my daughters,
my third girl, she tells me when she's ten years old,
(06:20):
I want to play college softball.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
So by that point I was like, okay, how am
I gonna help you? I don't know anything about how
to get you there, but I'm going to find out.
You know, I had I'm a nurse by training, so
I went to nursing school and and by then I'm like,
I want to be a nurse, but I don't know
how to get a child to college, so.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Saved their lives. Just get to get right.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So my my husband and I he played college you know, baseball,
so he kind of knew a little bit of how
to how he worked for boys, but he didn't know
how to works how he works for girls, because it's
very different. Like for boys, college, you know, coaches go
see them play the high schools. Girls don't get seen
like that. Girls have to go into a travel ball
(07:06):
team that you have to be a lot of money
and then you go and compete and have a showcase
and invite these college coaches to go see you. So
it's all about money and what you can afford. And
so when she was ten, I was like, Okay, I
have to figure out how to get her there. We
immediately learned started learning the whole process of and I
always call it a formula because every girl, especially in softball,
(07:26):
that gets recruited for college is a formula you have
to follow. There's a process you have to follow, and
if at a certain age you don't meet those milestones,
the less likely you're going to be exposed to a
high quality you know college or like a university. So
learning all these things, we learned it and we were
(07:49):
so grateful that we were able to learn the ropes
of how to get her recruited. And so in her
junior year of actually she was going into her high
school to her senior year in high school, and she
had been seen by a lot of universities, and she
was getting offers left and right, because again we knew
the formula, we knew how to work that, and we realized.
(08:12):
So at that point, she gets an amazing offer for
Cornell University, a D one right IVY League, eighty thousand
dollars a year, and we were just like, how did
this happen? How did we get here? And so I
remember really clearly on the way back from her official visit,
(08:34):
because they invite her there, they whine and dine as
there for her to go and her and I sat
there and thought, how did you get here? Like what studio?
Out of everybody else that is doing the same thing,
what are some of the things. And I think a
huge component was that we were full of information. We
learned the formula, we learned how to do things. So
(08:55):
we're like, we need to share this with other girls,
we need to share this with our Latino community. Becau
not everybody's gonna have the same mom and dad that
you have that you know, so how can we tell
that six year old girl, you know, if you want
to go to a nighty league school, you can go.
You just have to make sure you follow these steps
because we kept it also along the way, like you
have to have good grades, you have to make sure
(09:16):
that you push yourself in school. So with her, it
all fit in because she was not only she's not
only athletically inclined, but she was also academically inclined, Like
she really liked books and liked everything. So you kind of,
you know, match, And so that's when the foundation was.
I always say that's when Aya was born. Is when
(09:36):
her and I we had this idea as like, how
can we do this? How can we share this? Because
one of the things that I realized too is that
when I used to go see her place, she was
the one percent. I tell everybody, they know who her
mom was because she's the only I'm the only one
that looked like her.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
There.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They knew every sitting there at Cornell University in Ithaca,
New York.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Who this woman with this Charla up there? Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yes, And so we decided, you know what we need
to express the world. We need to This is all
about knowledge. If you don't know, you're not gonna we
have We've encountered parents that they don't know that there's
a scholarship money for girls when they play sports. They
don't know that every school, even junior colleges, have money,
so that junior college even pay the girls to go play.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
So, but this is about knowledge and so and so
not and so then we thought, you know, we need
to start this and so a Yeah Ayah was born
at that time, and we decided, well, how are we
gonna get there? How are we gonna So we started
thinking of what our values and mission was and and
for us a lot of times is yeah, we want
girls to So basically we AA works in three principles.
The first one is athletics. We want girls to start
(10:48):
playing sports early in life because that's one of the
things too that we noticed that what I've learned is
that if my daughter wouldn't have started playing when she
was six years old, and I wouldn't have been of
course I had to pay for her to get trained here,
extra classes here, because coaches at the Parking rect level
don't have the same training they don't. They just all
(11:08):
throw the ball, but they don't tell them how to
do it. They don't have that. So we decided, no,
we're gonna get you a batting coach. A bitching coach.
She had all kinds of you know, a lot of
kids in the communities don't have that. So then one
of the things that we know is that if girls
start playing early in life and start getting exposed, they
are going to be successful in that sport that they choose.
And maybe they don't know what sport's going to be.
(11:29):
Maybe they can try all the sports between the ages
of you know, six and ten. But yeah, So with athletics,
we want girls to have access to free sports or
low costs, but want them to be able to access it,
and so we provide a lot of clinics, free clinics
or low cost clinics throughout we go everywhere. And so
in those clinics we also bring out quality trainers. A
(11:53):
lot of times you bring high school college girls that
are in college. They come and teach the girls how
to pay the sport. So that's with with with with
the athletics. The other one is education is huge for us,
so we want to make sure that girls know that
they have to get with grades. Girls know that we
need to make sure we empower them to be leaders
in their community. Because with girls, it's not like they're
(12:16):
all going to go pro right, there's very minimum, I mean,
very little number of girls that go there. But if
they become leaders outside their sport, they're going to be
successful women. And that's what we want. You know. I
right now, I'm a nursing director and that's a passion
for me to develop, you know, just little leaders because
I always say that for me, I had a personal
(12:38):
experience with leadership because I was shy when I was
little and I didn't I was afraid to do a
lot of things, and so I had to teach myself
how to be like, how to be spoken a little bit,
and how to develop my leadership skills because nobody taught
me how to do it. And so for me, it's
like that's one of the things too. My passion is
(12:59):
to develop this little girl so they can become these leaders.
Because I always say for me, as a nursing director,
I work in Men's Central Jail. That's my office. I
am the nursing director of jail, and for me to
be one of the only Latinas executives there is huge
because I'm just like, we need to have more women again,
(13:19):
so we need to have more women represented there. We
need to have more women that look like us there
so they can be making decisions that are affecting our
patients and so and so. For me, we work on
those leadership. We do, you know, workshops for girls they
from the ages of eight to like college girls. We
do workshops where we develop them as leaders. We give
(13:39):
them different topics and how to set goals, how to
professional development. It's one of the classes that we have.
Racing girl athletes is another one of the workshops we
have because I always say that not every athlete is born.
You always think my God born athlete, But athletes can
be made, you know, especially, It's kind of like we
(14:00):
have to nurture them. We have to provide them with
those opportunities, we have to provide them those resources, and
also involving the families in this whole knowledge because if again,
if they don't know, they're not going to specifically with
the cultural, you know, misconceptions. We say that that Latinos
(14:20):
specifically have. I always say little boys are born with
baseballs and balls in the crib, like, oh my god,
he's gonna be a baseball player. And little girls are like, no,
go help your mom. You know, no, don't touch the ball.
That's for boys. And so we have to break that barrier.
We have to be able to tell the parents, know,
your girl can play sports too. And guess what, there's
a lot of money for her to go to college.
(14:42):
You don't have to pay, you know, just have her
throw a ball, Go have her, you know, help her
with that. And so so we do that and then
the lat the third component of us or key metric
that we use is the community. And when the community
we want to we you know, provide equipment, free equipment
to underserve communities. And my high school was one of
(15:04):
actually the first high school that we donated for five
thousand dollars worth of equipment because of the tennis shoes,
the cleats that I was playing, and I was like,
I have to go back and do that to my
and so I went. But it was a sweet and
sour like time for me because I was there very happy.
There were twenty four girls, twenty latinas, four African Americans.
(15:28):
The sad thing about it was that is the same
issues and challenges they have now that they had when
I went there, And I'm thinking it's so sad because
I live in Burbank. Bourbank is completely different than Hollywood.
They were only ten minutes for tend Away, and like,
how can they still be behind so many years, you know,
because there have people there that are just checking the
(15:49):
boxes and not really investing in that in those youth.
I had a little girl that came to me because
I asked him. I said, how many of you are
playing club sophole? And I thought they're gonna raise hands,
at least half of them, and they were like one
little girl. Nobody raised their hand. And one little girl
came to me after and she said, you know, I
try to play. I try to I tried out for
(16:10):
a club when I was twelve. She goes, But I
was competing with girls that has started playing when they
were six, So she goes, my level of play at
twelve was here, and there was here the gap that
we need to bridge, you know. That's the gap that
we need to With these programs that we have, We're
hoping to bridge that gap where everybody has access to
sport in free sport, because that's money, right, you know,
(16:31):
my daughter got better because I had the money to
be paying for all those classes for her. So yeah,
and so also with community, so we do the we
do the sports donation of the equipment nation, but we
also are developing what we call AA Ambassadors, and A
ambassadors are girls of any age. I have the youngest
one so we have at eight years old, and the
(16:51):
oldest are in college. And basically with these ladies, what
we do is that I used them are kind of
like our eyes in their communities, so we can help
them because I cannot be in every community in the
in La County or in the United States, right, so
we have to have eyes somewhere else where they are
seeing a need and they can create and we can
(17:14):
work together to create a change. And so a lot
of times it could be fundraising for you know, something
that they want to do for for high school, or
it could be providing free classes to little girls just
to teach them how to you know, play sample. So
it could be anything, could be any idea we have
(17:35):
and we're having different sports. We had a boxer that
created a like in Riverside that created a self defense
uh class and it was so cute because she and
her dad and then her instructor were giving you know,
classes on how to you know, do self defense, and
we we came over. We we provided the rink for
them and we gave them free little pink gloves and
(17:58):
it was so cute, it was so so energetic. But
they got introduced to the sport of boxing, you know,
something that maybe they never thought they could do. And yeah,
so we have we we do that with the Ambassador program.
So we try to Those are the three things that
we do with within AA where we try to fiddle
our programs through through those key metrics that we use.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, the thing is, I think we have to remember
out there anybody not to assume everybody knows everything. Yes,
now you're just basically that's something I all the time.
I'm still finding things out and go that exist. You
just we just don't know everything. And I'm always told
there's money out there. You always told that, but you
(18:37):
may not know that. You may think, well, it's in
the line. I think, well, the school isn't telling me anything, right.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Do not tell me?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So I don't Maybe none of my friends we all
think the same way.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So like this, you say folks, there are programs, there
is money to be had, and so now while you
being on the show, we can say AI is one
of those such programs.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You know, it's said, we'll let you know what's out there.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I mean, so it's it's kind of like we can't
assume folks know everything that is anything bad on you
at home.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's just just may not know.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And sometimes they don't have the time you know you
have if you have working like parents that are working
the whole time and they work long hours and have
kids that are youngers, like they don't know, they don't know.
Maybe they just don't know that that that even is
a possibility, I know for us. For us for a fact,
initially when my daughter was thinking or being looked at
the Ivy League schools, they a lot of people would say,
(19:31):
but they don't keep scholarships. And it's true, they don't
keep scholarships, but they give something better that is an award.
It's a gift, a scholarship. Kids have to work, I
mean like not work, but you know, play the sport
and do that. But in a with a with an award,
if the second year you're there, you're like, I don't
want to play anymore. You still get that award every
(19:52):
year you're there. So those are things that I didn't know.
And and a lot of people don't know that. And again,
you know, because we don't ask, or because it's never happened,
that the key to us.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
But make a point.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
This may be a first generation person going to college.
So grandparents, I mean, it's not they didn't go to college,
so they don't know. I mean they just may not
even know or to have time to do the research
to figure out it's a first generator.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
We have a lot of first gen out.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
There, good parents and grandparents or just who just didn't
go to college.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And can you mentioned community college? Come on, folks, there's
some great community college programs out there too. For sports
that you have no idea that if you can't go
to this big one yet, go here first, you know.
And right, it's like kind of all kind of programs
all our place.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, and so some sports actually, like soccer, they try
to sometimes push the girls to go pro at sixteen
instead of yeah, instead of offering them to you know,
go to college first, because they should go to college.
You still get that exit they're too young to go pro,
you know at that age, and so what happens if
they get hurt, you know doing that, Like they're not
(21:01):
gonna have a career, they're gonna go to they're not
gonna have a degree. And and so those are the
things that a lot of times that we when they
come to us for advice or you know, we we
we tell them that, we say, you know, what depends
on the sport. But this is some of the sports
you have to be always trying to go to college.
Like you know, that's that's gonna be with you your
(21:22):
whole life, that degree. So you know, if you can
get it for freeze even better.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yes, I have lots of letters out to my name.
I love my letters. I celebrate my letters. I worked
hard for them letters letters. Yeah, so I love my letters.
And that's that's very cool because again, for some people
who you're watching this almost forget there's a whole female
sports program out there, and on this network. We have
(21:49):
two college women's basketball podcasts, oh very successful, once a
Rolls Home and Tech which is in Indiana, and that
team with the boy they're good. Uh So I'm just
telling you, there's base there's softball, there's a basketball, there's
soccer's water polo, there's volleyball. There's a lot of stuff
out there for women. They're they're playing at these amazing levels.
(22:12):
You can watch I mean, I'm just talking Olympics. You
can go outside sometimes here in La go out to
Venice Beach or Manhattan Beach or you can see them
people playing and it's amazing. These women are just like
these girls and women are just amazing. They better than
I am. I can't play that good anymore. Ain't those things?
I mean, there's a lot of the ones. It's almost
like you said, the default is men sports. Yeah, but
(22:34):
it's also women sports. There's both you Okay, thing, So
when did you When din't you realize you can make
this sense to some kind of workable foundation, because start
a foundation isn't easy, you know, we'll starting any type
of business isn't easy. But what maen you decide? Because
you said you're a nurse, I'm also a former nurse myself.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
LVN. But no, so how do you sigh?
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Okay, why I'm working and making money is the nurse?
It also started foundation?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Kind of? How backed a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah? So it was it was I know that I'm
very We're very passionate. I think our family because here
my youngest daughter, we drag her along. We say free
labor for her because you know, she she helps us
a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Sorry, oh yeah, please have some water. Water.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
So what we did is that we had the idea
and we're just like, well, how are we going to
make this happen. We had to become a nonprofit first,
and then we had to figure out how to we're
going to be able to get money. And that's the
hardest thing, right especially because when we started. We started
twenty nineteen, right before covidh and our letter of like, oh,
(23:49):
you're a nonprofit, and then COVID happens. It happened in September.
We got our letter and we're just like so excited.
And the new year, we're just like, okay, we're gonna
start working hard January February, and then March you're like, okay,
what do we do now?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I know. One of the greatest things is that for us,
and I always say this, Nike came and knocking on
our door. Literally I got a call and I thought
it was like I thought, oh my god, because we
weren't thinking that I had a future after the COVID
because it was just like people are like struggling, like
how are we going to come now and ask people
for money or how are we going to be doing this?
(24:30):
So Nike came uh and basically the call that I got,
I thought it was like a scam and then realized, oh,
it's not a scam. So they gave us our first donation, UH.
And it was basically a donation of just like here's
some money, do whatever you can with it. It wasn't
a grant, it was more like an they call it
an inkind donation. But they believed in our mission and
(24:51):
they believed in what we stood for, and they and
they knew that there's not there was another organization like
ours anywhere in LA where you're forty eight percent of
the population is Latino and you don't have an organization
that pushes girls to play sports. So they have been
since then, we're going five years now, have been our constant,
(25:13):
whether they're taking us basically under their wings and whether
it is with money or donations or just connections. Also,
they've been very helpful because after that and once you
have the Nike stamp, right, it's kind of like everybody's
going to be like, oh, you got a donation from
or a grand from Nike. That means they trust you.
(25:36):
And so we've had you know, Gatorade, we had the
Exporting Good, We've had a few other companies. But it's
tough because I have a full time job, and I said,
I'm a mother of four, so it's always busy. But
because I'm passionate about it, I made time. So the
weekends are the times where was like, and after work
(25:57):
is a time where I'm like, Okay, we're gonna spend
two three hours. Whether the first year I was doing
the I was doing Instagram, I was doing I was
in the newsletter, I was doing all the emails, I
was doing I was doing grit, grant writing, everything. A
little by little, We've been trying to get people to
help us, you know, but we run mostly off like
(26:19):
people that volunteer, but we do have people that we
paid as well, depending on the grants. Because that's the
other thing. I had to learn a lot about grant
and grant writing as well, because they're very specific right
into what the grant is going to be used for,
and you need to have all the supporting documents and
so there's a lot that goes on. But again, I
think when you're passionate about something, uh, and you really
(26:42):
I've seen the effect that it has had in our
community because I have seen it with my own eyes.
Just this week, we're going to go to a this
call Honor Roll camp where the company give us give
us us a few discounted to college scholarships, but we
(27:02):
is basically free the campus about one thousand dollars for
these girls to go in front of Ivy League and
D three and D two college universities. Right, yeah, one
thousand dollars right, And so people that have the money
are going to go and send their kids. I couldn't
(27:22):
tell I have to tell you, I couldn't tend my daughter.
I was like a thousand dollars for just one camp.
But this company has been leaved in our mission and
vision and has really wants to help the Latino community
that they have started to give us discounted codes. So
some of our people that we prefer, they get it
(27:42):
either for free or they get a huge over seventy
percent off the camp. Basically they pay not even two
hundred dollars. And so a lot of kids have been
recruited from these camps to go play at universities. Okay,
these families come back and with tears. We had our family.
Every time we attend, we have I think we're gonna
(28:04):
have a good Like twenty girls this this camp this
week that are coming from us, and the parents come
to us and there's in tears literally like they're so
grateful that we've been able to allow them because they
wouldn't have been able to afford that camp. And so
things like that, you know that you do along the
way that that that you find people and there there
(28:26):
I always say that qualitative data because this is just
you know there their stories that they share with you
is what keeps us going. But sometimes and I've been like,
oh my god, I have to write this report. I
have to do this, and it's a Friday. I'm a
tire for I worked in hours a day, so it's
like I come home and I'm exhausted. I'm like, Okay,
you know, it's for the girls. There's a there's a
(28:47):
reason why we're doing that. And my goal is one
day I'm like, if I can hire a CEO.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
To run it exactly, it'll be amazing.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
But it's for the girls.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's like that, and that's and that it's like it's
almost like everybody's like numbers, numbers, numbers, But you're saying, but.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
It's people, people, people stories.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yes, it's it's the tears, it's tears, it's all of that.
You're going, I'm seeing it in my my right in
front of me. Some is accepted and they can't believe,
and their lives are changed forever. That's that's the the win.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
There's a story that CBS did on us I want
to say two or three years ago on Hispanic Heritage Month.
I think it was twenty two. And when every I
saw it's on our website, and every time that I
listened to I play that story because it's a little
segment they did. I get teary. I because we have
a lot of girls that our interview there and just
(29:46):
the things that they say, I'm just like, oh my god,
that's incredible. Those are the words that are so impactful, and.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Those those are the really why we get up in
the morning to exactly. I mean, it's I always say,
you have to invest back in your community.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
You just have to. That's that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, you know, you gotta get back. And I think
what you're doing is giving back, that's what you're doing.
So it's the Alien Sports Foundation dot org. I will
put that in the descriptions. Well, they're also on Facebook
or X you call it X now, yeah, and also Instagram, Eliga,
Underscore Sports on a score Foundation, Follow them, follow them,
(30:28):
follow them, check out their website. Check out what they're
doing and what they may be able to help you
your daughters or nieces or you know, granddaughters or whatever
like check it out at least at least get information.
Go there and get information, contact your talk to her,
talk to you, just see what's going on. Or if
you want to help them, right because you're non profit, right, yes,
(30:48):
you want to give some give something, a gift to
a nonprofit, think about them too, because again we're we're
what they're doing is they're we're giving us productive members
of society, which is what we want, well rounded members
of society. And I always say, sports, the arts, all
these things are great things for kids, and they're great
(31:09):
things for teenagers. They're great things for young people. It's
been proven it makes them just better in so many
ways and just in life. It's helped us both that
we're both. We're both great people being and Patty you're
good people. Yes, life and arts in our life or everything.
So yes, it's good. Thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate you
helping us spread the word.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
My pleasure when we come back anytime. So folks again,
it's the AI Sports Foundation dot org again. Everything well
underneath the video and underneath the audio so you can
go there, click on it, see what's going on with them.
I'm James Engenior. We're everywhere extra connections on Facebook, We're
everywhere else and we're here trying to connect people. That's
what we're trying to do and hopefully this will be
(31:55):
a new connection for you. We'll take everybody. We're here
on Wednesday. We'll up you next time.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Mmhm
Hello, and welcome to another diition of extra connections. I'm
James Lot you to hear Jailja Media and we're all
about connection. And this person has a foundation, she's the
co founder of it that talks about connection also connecting
the right people to the right places. We're gonna talk
about that. It's an Ellen Sports Foundation or a Yeah Foundation.
(00:25):
I am I have Latino so I do you know?
AA is a nonprofit organization that helps young female athletes
of Hispanic Latino descents to achieve their goal to attend college.
That's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well they do.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
They help offset some of the costs for the families,
especially once you just don't have the money or enough
money to do it. As we know, college is expensive.
But their kids are good, they're good athletes. They can
get in, but they need some help, so they help
them with the boost. The program also helps those two
empowered leaderships. So now we're talking about working on their
mental side and scipline amongst the athletes that will lead
(01:01):
to a positive life outcome. Because yes, we don't just
want to send them off to college. We'll make sure
they're ready and they're out there. They had all the
challenges that happen. So we're gonna talk more about this
with Patty Goadi Chavico. How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I'm doing good? Good, How are you fine?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So congratulations on your foundation. We think it's a great idea.
And so because I know Okay, so I noticed it's
Hispanic Latino, because we know in our community, I'm also
part of the community.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
There's different names. People go a different names.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So you're like, anybody of that descent is welcome, right,
as long as they are female and that descent, they're available,
you're ready to help.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yes, we're inclusive of actually all girls. We primarily help
Latina and women of color, but we also are very
inclusive of all girls. I want to play sports?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Oh I like that. Of course I like that.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, Well, I want to ask this just first off, bet,
were you a sports person?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yes, I was an athlete.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
When'd you play? What did you want? I know?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's my story is a bit.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I came to this country when I was twelve years old.
I was undocumented for nine years and when I played
in high school. That's where I played softball, Hollywood High
in LA.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Wait a minute, my seat, you're from La. Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
If about here. Hollywood High. That's where I went to
high school. And I always say that sports was an
outlet for me because we couldn't go freely to places
and so a lot of times for me, the only
outlet I had was playing sports, and so I played softball.
So I really value sports. And so I have four girls,
(02:42):
and so my girls, I always thought, oh my god,
I couldn't go further than high school because I had
to work and go to school at the same time.
But I couldn't play you know, post dot, but I
really really wanted to. And I always think that sports
has a lot of value for girls. It really helps work, ethics, responsibility.
He helps to just set goals for you in life.
(03:05):
So highly highly highly promoted. So that yeah, so I
do have a background, you know, playing example.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, I know I had friends with Holle I went
to Inglewood High. But I know friends. I know friends
with the Hollywood High and a friends with to Venice High.
I know friends, you know, Hamilton, all your goals out there,
you're from here.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yes, I'm sorry, right, but I read her bioflux, so
I didn't see that part. So I'm like that, like
that makes me just kind of smile someone from out
here when you so, what what did you We are
a couple of things that you got out of playing sports?
As we get in just talk, what are a couple
of things you got out of it?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So I quickly learned, you know, to be responsible because
we had to be on time. We had a we
had we have to have a structure, right, we had
a practice, we had to play, we have to go
to games. And on top of that, we had to
keep our grades up because if you don't have good grades,
you couldn't play. So it really gave me that autonomy
and independence and also an outlet to just kind of
to be myself and enjoy I really truly enjoy playing
(04:03):
the sport.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, teamwork. I played baseball soccer, which is just football.
It was just like there's it's a camaraderie with your teammates.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Belonging, you know, that that sense of like you belong
to something. And like I said, being here and undocumented
couldn't go places. But I did have a team. I
did have teammates and they were they were very welcoming
with me, and my coach was very welcoming too. But
one of the things that it was really for me.
I remember playing softball in the dirt penny shoes because
(04:35):
we couldn't afford my parents couldn't afford pleats, and so
I remember one year that somebody donated cleats for the
two teams, and I got these beautiful pony shoot you know, cleats,
and I was like, I treat them like gold. And
I remember thinking, oh my god, it's so amazing and
just gave me that power, you know, because for girls,
as one of the things that you know, if you
look good, you're gonna play good. And so when you
(04:59):
you know, when you're play any underserved communities, a lot
of times you don't have that hand me down equipment,
You don't have anything, and so you don't feel good
about playing. But I remember that I felt like a
superstar with those cleats.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I mean when I was in Englewood, it was it
was a really bad neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It was very now it's a little different, but it
was very much underserved.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, times we had to share equipment, yes, you know
what it was the things you didn't have to share, yeah, yes, exactly.
But the fun thing was you played other teams, other
schools and so big. We get to go other You
get to go other places, now right, that's much fun. Yes,
I do agree with you completely. That's great. So we
(05:41):
got we had kind of okay, we gotta go from there,
and I want to get from there.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We have your daughters, like four girls, I have two.
I thought that was enough.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes or no, a strong woman, you're all right. So
then so that any of them start to show any
interesting playing sports?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, yeah, So immediately for me it was like a
no brainer. I had to put him in sports. And
I actually put all four girls in sports, but you know,
something to take it a little more serious another and
that it is not sports, not for everybody. But they
all played up until high school. But one of my daughters,
my third girl, she tells me when she's ten years old,
(06:20):
I want to play college softball.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
So by that point I was like, okay, how am
I gonna help you? I don't know anything about how
to get you there, but I'm going to find out.
You know, I had I'm a nurse by training, so
I went to nursing school and and by then I'm like,
I want to be a nurse, but I don't know
how to get a child to college, so.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Saved their lives. Just get to get right.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So my my husband and I he played college you know, baseball,
so he kind of knew a little bit of how
to how he worked for boys, but he didn't know
how to works how he works for girls, because it's
very different. Like for boys, college, you know, coaches go
see them play the high schools. Girls don't get seen
like that. Girls have to go into a travel ball
(07:06):
team that you have to be a lot of money
and then you go and compete and have a showcase
and invite these college coaches to go see you. So
it's all about money and what you can afford. And
so when she was ten, I was like, Okay, I
have to figure out how to get her there. We
immediately learned started learning the whole process of and I
always call it a formula because every girl, especially in softball,
(07:26):
that gets recruited for college is a formula you have
to follow. There's a process you have to follow, and
if at a certain age you don't meet those milestones,
the less likely you're going to be exposed to a
high quality you know college or like a university. So
learning all these things, we learned it and we were
(07:49):
so grateful that we were able to learn the ropes
of how to get her recruited. And so in her
junior year of actually she was going into her high
school to her senior year in high school, and she
had been seen by a lot of universities, and she
was getting offers left and right, because again we knew
the formula, we knew how to work that, and we realized.
(08:12):
So at that point, she gets an amazing offer for
Cornell University, a D one right IVY League, eighty thousand
dollars a year, and we were just like, how did
this happen? How did we get here? And so I
remember really clearly on the way back from her official visit,
(08:34):
because they invite her there, they whine and dine as
there for her to go and her and I sat
there and thought, how did you get here? Like what studio?
Out of everybody else that is doing the same thing,
what are some of the things. And I think a
huge component was that we were full of information. We
learned the formula, we learned how to do things. So
(08:55):
we're like, we need to share this with other girls,
we need to share this with our Latino community. Becau
not everybody's gonna have the same mom and dad that
you have that you know, so how can we tell
that six year old girl, you know, if you want
to go to a nighty league school, you can go.
You just have to make sure you follow these steps
because we kept it also along the way, like you
have to have good grades, you have to make sure
(09:16):
that you push yourself in school. So with her, it
all fit in because she was not only she's not
only athletically inclined, but she was also academically inclined, Like
she really liked books and liked everything. So you kind of,
you know, match, And so that's when the foundation was.
I always say that's when Aya was born. Is when
(09:36):
her and I we had this idea as like, how
can we do this? How can we share this? Because
one of the things that I realized too is that
when I used to go see her place, she was
the one percent. I tell everybody, they know who her
mom was because she's the only I'm the only one
that looked like her.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
There.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They knew every sitting there at Cornell University in Ithaca,
New York.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Who this woman with this Charla up there? Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yes, And so we decided, you know what we need
to express the world. We need to This is all
about knowledge. If you don't know, you're not gonna we
have We've encountered parents that they don't know that there's
a scholarship money for girls when they play sports. They
don't know that every school, even junior colleges, have money,
so that junior college even pay the girls to go play.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
So, but this is about knowledge and so and so
not and so then we thought, you know, we need
to start this and so a Yeah Ayah was born
at that time, and we decided, well, how are we
gonna get there? How are we gonna So we started
thinking of what our values and mission was and and
for us a lot of times is yeah, we want
girls to So basically we AA works in three principles.
The first one is athletics. We want girls to start
(10:48):
playing sports early in life because that's one of the
things too that we noticed that what I've learned is
that if my daughter wouldn't have started playing when she
was six years old, and I wouldn't have been of
course I had to pay for her to get trained here,
extra classes here, because coaches at the Parking rect level
don't have the same training they don't. They just all
(11:08):
throw the ball, but they don't tell them how to
do it. They don't have that. So we decided, no,
we're gonna get you a batting coach. A bitching coach.
She had all kinds of you know, a lot of
kids in the communities don't have that. So then one
of the things that we know is that if girls
start playing early in life and start getting exposed, they
are going to be successful in that sport that they choose.
And maybe they don't know what sport's going to be.
(11:29):
Maybe they can try all the sports between the ages
of you know, six and ten. But yeah, So with athletics,
we want girls to have access to free sports or
low costs, but want them to be able to access it,
and so we provide a lot of clinics, free clinics
or low cost clinics throughout we go everywhere. And so
in those clinics we also bring out quality trainers. A
(11:53):
lot of times you bring high school college girls that
are in college. They come and teach the girls how
to pay the sport. So that's with with with with
the athletics. The other one is education is huge for us,
so we want to make sure that girls know that
they have to get with grades. Girls know that we
need to make sure we empower them to be leaders
in their community. Because with girls, it's not like they're
(12:16):
all going to go pro right, there's very minimum, I mean,
very little number of girls that go there. But if
they become leaders outside their sport, they're going to be
successful women. And that's what we want. You know. I
right now, I'm a nursing director and that's a passion
for me to develop, you know, just little leaders because
I always say that for me, I had a personal
(12:38):
experience with leadership because I was shy when I was
little and I didn't I was afraid to do a
lot of things, and so I had to teach myself
how to be like, how to be spoken a little bit,
and how to develop my leadership skills because nobody taught
me how to do it. And so for me, it's
like that's one of the things too. My passion is
(12:59):
to develop this little girl so they can become these leaders.
Because I always say for me, as a nursing director,
I work in Men's Central Jail. That's my office. I
am the nursing director of jail, and for me to
be one of the only Latinas executives there is huge
because I'm just like, we need to have more women again,
(13:19):
so we need to have more women represented there. We
need to have more women that look like us there
so they can be making decisions that are affecting our
patients and so and so. For me, we work on
those leadership. We do, you know, workshops for girls they
from the ages of eight to like college girls. We
do workshops where we develop them as leaders. We give
(13:39):
them different topics and how to set goals, how to
professional development. It's one of the classes that we have.
Racing girl athletes is another one of the workshops we
have because I always say that not every athlete is born.
You always think my God born athlete, But athletes can
be made, you know, especially, It's kind of like we
(14:00):
have to nurture them. We have to provide them with
those opportunities, we have to provide them those resources, and
also involving the families in this whole knowledge because if again,
if they don't know, they're not going to specifically with
the cultural, you know, misconceptions. We say that that Latinos
(14:20):
specifically have. I always say little boys are born with
baseballs and balls in the crib, like, oh my god,
he's gonna be a baseball player. And little girls are like, no,
go help your mom. You know, no, don't touch the ball.
That's for boys. And so we have to break that barrier.
We have to be able to tell the parents, know,
your girl can play sports too. And guess what, there's
a lot of money for her to go to college.
(14:42):
You don't have to pay, you know, just have her
throw a ball, Go have her, you know, help her
with that. And so so we do that and then
the lat the third component of us or key metric
that we use is the community. And when the community
we want to we you know, provide equipment, free equipment
to underserve communities. And my high school was one of
(15:04):
actually the first high school that we donated for five
thousand dollars worth of equipment because of the tennis shoes,
the cleats that I was playing, and I was like,
I have to go back and do that to my
and so I went. But it was a sweet and
sour like time for me because I was there very happy.
There were twenty four girls, twenty latinas, four African Americans.
(15:28):
The sad thing about it was that is the same
issues and challenges they have now that they had when
I went there, And I'm thinking it's so sad because
I live in Burbank. Bourbank is completely different than Hollywood.
They were only ten minutes for tend Away, and like,
how can they still be behind so many years, you know,
because there have people there that are just checking the
(15:49):
boxes and not really investing in that in those youth.
I had a little girl that came to me because
I asked him. I said, how many of you are
playing club sophole? And I thought they're gonna raise hands,
at least half of them, and they were like one
little girl. Nobody raised their hand. And one little girl
came to me after and she said, you know, I
try to play. I try to I tried out for
(16:10):
a club when I was twelve. She goes, But I
was competing with girls that has started playing when they
were six, So she goes, my level of play at
twelve was here, and there was here the gap that
we need to bridge, you know. That's the gap that
we need to With these programs that we have, We're
hoping to bridge that gap where everybody has access to
sport in free sport, because that's money, right, you know,
(16:31):
my daughter got better because I had the money to
be paying for all those classes for her. So yeah,
and so also with community, so we do the we
do the sports donation of the equipment nation, but we
also are developing what we call AA Ambassadors, and A
ambassadors are girls of any age. I have the youngest
one so we have at eight years old, and the
(16:51):
oldest are in college. And basically with these ladies, what
we do is that I used them are kind of
like our eyes in their communities, so we can help
them because I cannot be in every community in the
in La County or in the United States, right, so
we have to have eyes somewhere else where they are
seeing a need and they can create and we can
(17:14):
work together to create a change. And so a lot
of times it could be fundraising for you know, something
that they want to do for for high school, or
it could be providing free classes to little girls just
to teach them how to you know, play sample. So
it could be anything, could be any idea we have
(17:35):
and we're having different sports. We had a boxer that
created a like in Riverside that created a self defense
uh class and it was so cute because she and
her dad and then her instructor were giving you know,
classes on how to you know, do self defense, and
we we came over. We we provided the rink for
them and we gave them free little pink gloves and
(17:58):
it was so cute, it was so so energetic. But
they got introduced to the sport of boxing, you know,
something that maybe they never thought they could do. And yeah,
so we have we we do that with the Ambassador program.
So we try to Those are the three things that
we do with within AA where we try to fiddle
our programs through through those key metrics that we use.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, the thing is, I think we have to remember
out there anybody not to assume everybody knows everything. Yes,
now you're just basically that's something I all the time.
I'm still finding things out and go that exist. You
just we just don't know everything. And I'm always told
there's money out there. You always told that, but you
(18:37):
may not know that. You may think, well, it's in
the line. I think, well, the school isn't telling me anything, right.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Do not tell me?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So I don't Maybe none of my friends we all
think the same way.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So like this, you say folks, there are programs, there
is money to be had, and so now while you
being on the show, we can say AI is one
of those such programs.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You know, it's said, we'll let you know what's out there.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I mean, so it's it's kind of like we can't
assume folks know everything that is anything bad on you
at home.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's just just may not know.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And sometimes they don't have the time you know you
have if you have working like parents that are working
the whole time and they work long hours and have
kids that are youngers, like they don't know, they don't know.
Maybe they just don't know that that that even is
a possibility, I know for us. For us for a fact,
initially when my daughter was thinking or being looked at
the Ivy League schools, they a lot of people would say,
(19:31):
but they don't keep scholarships. And it's true, they don't
keep scholarships, but they give something better that is an award.
It's a gift, a scholarship. Kids have to work, I
mean like not work, but you know, play the sport
and do that. But in a with a with an award,
if the second year you're there, you're like, I don't
want to play anymore. You still get that award every
(19:52):
year you're there. So those are things that I didn't know.
And and a lot of people don't know that. And again,
you know, because we don't ask, or because it's never happened,
that the key to us.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
But make a point.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
This may be a first generation person going to college.
So grandparents, I mean, it's not they didn't go to college,
so they don't know. I mean they just may not
even know or to have time to do the research
to figure out it's a first generator.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
We have a lot of first gen out.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
There, good parents and grandparents or just who just didn't
go to college.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And can you mentioned community college? Come on, folks, there's
some great community college programs out there too. For sports
that you have no idea that if you can't go
to this big one yet, go here first, you know.
And right, it's like kind of all kind of programs
all our place.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, and so some sports actually, like soccer, they try
to sometimes push the girls to go pro at sixteen
instead of yeah, instead of offering them to you know,
go to college first, because they should go to college.
You still get that exit they're too young to go pro,
you know at that age, and so what happens if
they get hurt, you know doing that, Like they're not
(21:01):
gonna have a career, they're gonna go to they're not
gonna have a degree. And and so those are the
things that a lot of times that we when they
come to us for advice or you know, we we
we tell them that, we say, you know, what depends
on the sport. But this is some of the sports
you have to be always trying to go to college.
Like you know, that's that's gonna be with you your
(21:22):
whole life, that degree. So you know, if you can
get it for freeze even better.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yes, I have lots of letters out to my name.
I love my letters. I celebrate my letters. I worked
hard for them letters letters. Yeah, so I love my letters.
And that's that's very cool because again, for some people
who you're watching this almost forget there's a whole female
sports program out there, and on this network. We have
(21:49):
two college women's basketball podcasts, oh very successful, once a
Rolls Home and Tech which is in Indiana, and that
team with the boy they're good. Uh So I'm just
telling you, there's base there's softball, there's a basketball, there's
soccer's water polo, there's volleyball. There's a lot of stuff
out there for women. They're they're playing at these amazing levels.
(22:12):
You can watch I mean, I'm just talking Olympics. You
can go outside sometimes here in La go out to
Venice Beach or Manhattan Beach or you can see them
people playing and it's amazing. These women are just like
these girls and women are just amazing. They better than
I am. I can't play that good anymore. Ain't those things?
I mean, there's a lot of the ones. It's almost
like you said, the default is men sports. Yeah, but
(22:34):
it's also women sports. There's both you Okay, thing, So
when did you When din't you realize you can make
this sense to some kind of workable foundation, because start
a foundation isn't easy, you know, we'll starting any type
of business isn't easy. But what maen you decide? Because
you said you're a nurse, I'm also a former nurse myself.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
LVN. But no, so how do you sigh?
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Okay, why I'm working and making money is the nurse?
It also started foundation?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Kind of? How backed a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah? So it was it was I know that I'm
very We're very passionate. I think our family because here
my youngest daughter, we drag her along. We say free
labor for her because you know, she she helps us
a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Sorry, oh yeah, please have some water. Water.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
So what we did is that we had the idea
and we're just like, well, how are we going to
make this happen. We had to become a nonprofit first,
and then we had to figure out how to we're
going to be able to get money. And that's the
hardest thing, right especially because when we started. We started
twenty nineteen, right before covidh and our letter of like, oh,
(23:49):
you're a nonprofit, and then COVID happens. It happened in September.
We got our letter and we're just like so excited.
And the new year, we're just like, okay, we're gonna
start working hard January February, and then March you're like, okay,
what do we do now?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I know. One of the greatest things is that for us,
and I always say this, Nike came and knocking on
our door. Literally I got a call and I thought
it was like I thought, oh my god, because we
weren't thinking that I had a future after the COVID
because it was just like people are like struggling, like
how are we going to come now and ask people
for money or how are we going to be doing this?
(24:30):
So Nike came uh and basically the call that I got,
I thought it was like a scam and then realized, oh,
it's not a scam. So they gave us our first donation, UH.
And it was basically a donation of just like here's
some money, do whatever you can with it. It wasn't
a grant, it was more like an they call it
an inkind donation. But they believed in our mission and
(24:51):
they believed in what we stood for, and they and
they knew that there's not there was another organization like
ours anywhere in LA where you're forty eight percent of
the population is Latino and you don't have an organization
that pushes girls to play sports. So they have been
since then, we're going five years now, have been our constant,
(25:13):
whether they're taking us basically under their wings and whether
it is with money or donations or just connections. Also,
they've been very helpful because after that and once you
have the Nike stamp, right, it's kind of like everybody's
going to be like, oh, you got a donation from
or a grand from Nike. That means they trust you.
(25:36):
And so we've had you know, Gatorade, we had the
Exporting Good, We've had a few other companies. But it's
tough because I have a full time job, and I said,
I'm a mother of four, so it's always busy. But
because I'm passionate about it, I made time. So the
weekends are the times where was like, and after work
(25:57):
is a time where I'm like, Okay, we're gonna spend
two three hours. Whether the first year I was doing
the I was doing Instagram, I was doing I was
in the newsletter, I was doing all the emails, I
was doing I was doing grit, grant writing, everything. A
little by little, We've been trying to get people to
help us, you know, but we run mostly off like
(26:19):
people that volunteer, but we do have people that we
paid as well, depending on the grants. Because that's the
other thing. I had to learn a lot about grant
and grant writing as well, because they're very specific right
into what the grant is going to be used for,
and you need to have all the supporting documents and
so there's a lot that goes on. But again, I
think when you're passionate about something, uh, and you really
(26:42):
I've seen the effect that it has had in our
community because I have seen it with my own eyes.
Just this week, we're going to go to a this
call Honor Roll camp where the company give us give
us us a few discounted to college scholarships, but we
(27:02):
is basically free the campus about one thousand dollars for
these girls to go in front of Ivy League and
D three and D two college universities. Right, yeah, one
thousand dollars right, And so people that have the money
are going to go and send their kids. I couldn't
(27:22):
tell I have to tell you, I couldn't tend my daughter.
I was like a thousand dollars for just one camp.
But this company has been leaved in our mission and
vision and has really wants to help the Latino community
that they have started to give us discounted codes. So
some of our people that we prefer, they get it
(27:42):
either for free or they get a huge over seventy
percent off the camp. Basically they pay not even two
hundred dollars. And so a lot of kids have been
recruited from these camps to go play at universities. Okay,
these families come back and with tears. We had our family.
Every time we attend, we have I think we're gonna
(28:04):
have a good Like twenty girls this this camp this
week that are coming from us, and the parents come
to us and there's in tears literally like they're so
grateful that we've been able to allow them because they
wouldn't have been able to afford that camp. And so
things like that, you know that you do along the
way that that that you find people and there there
(28:26):
I always say that qualitative data because this is just
you know there their stories that they share with you
is what keeps us going. But sometimes and I've been like,
oh my god, I have to write this report. I
have to do this, and it's a Friday. I'm a
tire for I worked in hours a day, so it's
like I come home and I'm exhausted. I'm like, Okay,
you know, it's for the girls. There's a there's a
(28:47):
reason why we're doing that. And my goal is one
day I'm like, if I can hire a CEO.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
To run it exactly, it'll be amazing.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
But it's for the girls.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's like that, and that's and that it's like it's
almost like everybody's like numbers, numbers, numbers, But you're saying, but.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
It's people, people, people stories.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yes, it's it's the tears, it's tears, it's all of that.
You're going, I'm seeing it in my my right in
front of me. Some is accepted and they can't believe,
and their lives are changed forever. That's that's the the win.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
There's a story that CBS did on us I want
to say two or three years ago on Hispanic Heritage Month.
I think it was twenty two. And when every I
saw it's on our website, and every time that I
listened to I play that story because it's a little
segment they did. I get teary. I because we have
a lot of girls that our interview there and just
(29:46):
the things that they say, I'm just like, oh my god,
that's incredible. Those are the words that are so impactful, and.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Those those are the really why we get up in
the morning to exactly. I mean, it's I always say,
you have to invest back in your community.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
You just have to. That's that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, you know, you gotta get back. And I think
what you're doing is giving back, that's what you're doing.
So it's the Alien Sports Foundation dot org. I will
put that in the descriptions. Well, they're also on Facebook
or X you call it X now, yeah, and also Instagram, Eliga,
Underscore Sports on a score Foundation, Follow them, follow them,
(30:28):
follow them, check out their website. Check out what they're
doing and what they may be able to help you
your daughters or nieces or you know, granddaughters or whatever
like check it out at least at least get information.
Go there and get information, contact your talk to her,
talk to you, just see what's going on. Or if
you want to help them, right because you're non profit, right, yes,
(30:48):
you want to give some give something, a gift to
a nonprofit, think about them too, because again we're we're
what they're doing is they're we're giving us productive members
of society, which is what we want, well rounded members
of society. And I always say, sports, the arts, all
these things are great things for kids, and they're great
(31:09):
things for teenagers. They're great things for young people. It's
been proven it makes them just better in so many
ways and just in life. It's helped us both that
we're both. We're both great people being and Patty you're
good people. Yes, life and arts in our life or everything.
So yes, it's good. Thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate you
helping us spread the word.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
My pleasure when we come back anytime. So folks again,
it's the AI Sports Foundation dot org again. Everything well
underneath the video and underneath the audio so you can
go there, click on it, see what's going on with them.
I'm James Engenior. We're everywhere extra connections on Facebook, We're
everywhere else and we're here trying to connect people. That's
what we're trying to do and hopefully this will be
(31:55):
a new connection for you. We'll take everybody. We're here
on Wednesday. We'll up you next time.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Mmhm
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