When our co-founders flew down to Puerto Rico earlier this year and met all the wonderful people of the commonwealth, we knew Rise Up & Care was going to return. However, little did we know that—after only a few weeks and several rounds of bureaucratic haggling later—we would once again be on our way back to the beautiful Island of Enchantment!
School is in session! Speaking on School for Startups Radio with Jim Beach!
A few weeks ago, our co-founders, Kirk Bowman and Jon Wilcox, appeared on the show School for Startups Radio with host Jim Beach! They had a wonderful time sharing their experiences with all of us at Rise Up & Care, as well as drumming up some buzz for their new book, Reimagining Global Philanthropy (out now!). Their interview aired on the April 21st edition of the show, and is available on both Apple Podcasts and the School for Startups Radio website.
Jim Beach is an author, speaker, and businessperson who wrote School for Startups in 2011—the book which would become the namesake of his show. Since then, he has remained dedicated to entrepreneurship, international business, and education, and has used his platform to promote entrepreneurial thinking around the country (and the world!). School for Startups is available throughout the United States, and won the Small Business Administration’s Media Award in 2014.
Make sure to tune in to Kirk and Jon’s interview! You can visit Jim Beach and School for Startups Radio at their website, here:
¡Magnífico! Touring West End Station with Soccer in the Streets!
We’ve been huge fan of the work our friends at Soccer in the Streets have been doing for a long time, so we were on board right away when Sanjay Patel and Erik Nelson invited us to see one of their flagship projects: the pitches at West End Station, in downtown Atlanta! And, seeing as it was a gorgeous spring afternoon, we thought there was no better time to hop in a car and drive down to the station for a quick tour. What we saw when we got there, though, blew us away!
Around three enormous pillars holding up the track that runs MARTA’s Red and Gold Lines, two enclosed soccer fields—and a colorful troop of kids running around on them—basked readily in the afternoon sun. We watched the station’s free youth programming: warm-ups, drills, scrimmages, all supervised by dedicated mentors (one of whom, apparently, had had a stint at the youth academy of Paris Saint-Germain). On the sidelines, mothers with babies watched their little midfielders dance across the artificial turf. In the shade of the rail line, a large bin brimmed with well-used balóns.
Not far from the fields was the community garden, something that had been put in during the pandemic in order to address food insecurity—at the request of the locals. West End was chock full of things not only devoted to soccer, but also to community development. Speaking with Sanjay and Erik, we got a clear picture of their plans for the future: they were adding an orchard, and cistern for the garden, and a decommissioned train car filled with learning resources and books—it seemed the sky was the limit for this previously abandoned sliver of land. The ongoing transformation was truly remarkable, and we knew right away—we had to be a part of it.
We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing possible collaborations, whether in funding or outreach, and settled on a plan to work together and to keep in touch. We are so glad to have made our little trip to West End, and look forward to making a difference right at home in Atlanta!
Follow Soccer in the Streets on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram:
Chatting it up with Donna Seebo! Tune in soon!
One of our wonderful co-founders, Dr. Kirk Bowman, recently had the opportunity to chat with Donna Seebo on her radio talk show, Warriors for Peace. The two of them spoke about Rise Up & Care and the work we’re involved in, as well as Kirk and Jon’s new book, Reimagining Global Philanthropy (out now!). The interview will air on Wednesday, April 13th, from 7:00 to 8.00 PM PDT, and will be permanently uploaded to the show’s on-demand archives, for listeners around the world.
Ms. Seebo began The Donna Seebo Show in 2001 and expanded it into its own radio station in 2014. That same year, the station added a new weekly program known as Warriors for Peace, dedicated to those individuals “making this world a more balanced, sustaining environment”. Together, The Donna Seebo Show and Warriors for Peace boast listeners from over 128 countries, and feature more than 300 authors and experts every year.
Tune in on April 13th! You can access the show at the following link:
Taking a week off! We’ve got a lot on deck…
We here at Rise Up & Care hope you’re having a wonderful week, wherever you are in the world! We’re currently taking a (well-deserved) week off, to rest and relax before next month, when all of our carefully laid plans will fall into place. We’ll be releasing our newsletter, finalizing the Spanish version of our children’s book, organizing another trip to Puerto Rico, and screening our brand-new film…
But don’t look too close! It’s not ready just yet!
¡Vamos a Puerto Rico! New friends on the Island of Enchantment!
As you know, Rise Up & Care is always on the lookout for new friends to meet and new communities to partner with. This time, our travels took us all the way to the sun-dappled streets of beautiful Puerto Rico! Naturally, our very first trip to the Island of Enchantment had to be a listening and observing mission. We wanted to see as many people and as many organizations as possible—while we weren’t too busy trying to get a tan, of course!
It turns out the island is just brimming with local superheroes, incredible street art, and old-fashioned boricua magic! We talked to so many wonderful people, including Maria “Baby” Jaunarena, executive director of Fundación Colibrí, and Sofía Maldonado-Suárez, an artist at Sofias Studio in San Juan. Everyone we met was excited about Rise Up & Care, and couldn’t wait to tell us about this community leader or that local organization. It looks like we’ve got a lot of work to do in Puerto Rico, and, honestly, we just can’t wait to go back!
Here are some pictures of Puerto Rico’s dazzling street art, as well as some of Sofía’s work. Follow Sofía at www.sofiamaldonado.com or at @sofiamaldo on Instagram:
¡GOOOOOOL! Kick-off with Atlanta United!
When Matt Lawrey, director of our very own Atlanta United FC Academy, reached out to us in order to give back to the underserved communities where many of his young players live, we just knew—we had to get involved. Matt was generous enough to invite us over for a mask-to-mask meeting at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground in Marietta, Georgia, and gave us a guided tour of the pristine fields and facilities where the club trains!
Over the past several years, Atlanta United has tried to promote an ecosystem of sustainable youth talent and engagement across the state of Georgia. Matt reached out to us because he was inspired by our methods of giving back and wanted our input on how the club could go about implementing them. During our meeting, we had a lively conversation on what exactly we could collaborate on to assist these communities, and on how soccer could uplift young people across Georgia and around the world!
Here are some photos from our meeting. Follow Atlanta United at @ATLUTD on Twitter or at @atlutd on Instagram:
Felicitações, Miratus! A remarkable record at SULAM 2021!
Let’s extend our heartfelt congratulations to Sebastião Dias de Oliveira and the team from Association Miratus de Badminton for their outstanding performance at the 2021 South American Badminton Championships!
From December 1st to 5th, 16 athletes from Association Miratus de Badminton participated in the championships in Joinville, Santa Catarina, taking home 17 medals for Brazil, and winning 9 of their events. In total, Miratus athletes earned more than half of Brazil’s gold medals! A tremendous job to Artur, Donnians, Isak, Jonathan, Davi, Karen, Maria Eduarda, Kauã, Carlos Eduardo, Yasmin, Jeniffer, Deivid, Diego, Renan, Maria Fernanda, and Luis, and to Sebastião and everyone else involved!
Here are some of the pictures from the tournament:
