A real game changer: Denver Summit inspires young talent through partnership with Girls Inc. of Metro Denver

DENVER The Mile High City celebrated a historic home opener last month as Denver Summit FC played the Washington Spirit at Empower Field, where over 63,000 fans packed the stadium. Among those in the crowd were a group from Girls Inc. of Metro Denver proudly wearing shirts with "girls with goals" written on them.

Kayla Garcia, president and CEO of Girls Inc. of Metro Denver, explained the nonprofit supports girls with after school programming providing leadership and mentorship opportunities along with outreach programs and summer camps. Just days before the home game, staff was busy making over a hundred shirts for their girls to wear and show off their support for the new professional women's team.

"For us, this partnership goes beyond just the opening game," said Garcia. "It goes to all that it represents for girls and women in sports and in our community and when we heard the news that we were given the opportunity to attend the home opener, we knew that we needed to make it more of a celebration and more of a moment."

Girls Inc. of Metro Denver announced a new partnership with Denver Summit FC where they kicked off the start to the inaugural season with a volunteer event and decked out in gear for the home opener.

"So moving forward now, we have volunteer activities that we're able to do and have been able to do with the sports teams as they continue to build out all that they're doing in the community," Garcia said. "It has been an honor to be brought alongside with what they're doing."

While fans across the Mile High are thrilled to finally have a women's professional soccer team in town, it is especially meaningful to Girls Inc. of Metro Denver member Ana Paula Pierrend, a soccer standout herself.

"Ana Paula is our soccer girlie," said Garcia. "She knows all things sports, but she is very passionate in her soccer team and her ability of herself, but what this has done for her, is you can see her leadership and her confidence shine from what a team sport has done for her."

Pierrend is a senior at Stargate School and first got involved with Girls Inc. of Metro Denver in seventh grade. She reflected on the immense guidance and support she has received from the organization.

"I've had so many incredible opportunities, paid internships, going on panels with so many, like, powerful leaders that are in different communities," Pierrend said.

Another outlet in her life has been soccer. Pierrend said she started playing around five years old and grew up watching soccer with her family cheering on Peru and their national team. Coming up in the fall, Pierrend's home turf will soon look different as she will be heading to Rome City Institute.

"Soccer has given me the option to go to different places like Italy and study and get a scholarship and explore not just soccer, but also political science," Pierrend said. "I want to be a lawyer, and it's giving me the opportunity without that much of a financial burden. I mean, soccer for me has been everything."

Now with a professional women's team in Denver, players like Pierrend can see possibilities that weren't there before.

"Ever since I was little, and I think this goes for many girls, it's, I want to play soccer or I want to play a certain sport, I'm going to go pro and it's a big dream for like a very young girl for like very young at that age," said Pierrend. "It's very difficult to grasp it at that point, but when you get older, you realize, you know, there's a lot of hurdles, there's a lot of stuff. I don't have a team in my state, and that was something for me growing up."