22nd edition of Jamboree! brings the community together to celebrate

Written by Lorena Palacios
Communications Intern

(View all Jamboree! photos in our Flickr album)

DC SCORES celebrated the 22nd edition of Jamboree! on a beautiful Saturday filled with soccer, service-learning projects, and activities for the whole community.

During the course of six hours, 2,000 kids, alongside their families, gathered at Anacostia Park to celebrate the end of another successful DC SCORES spring season.

Jamboree! started early for DC SCORES staff in preparation for the exciting day ahead for everyone. Before teams started showing up, the staff arranged activity booths like face-painting and medal making, set up the fields that were going to see many, many goals throughout the day, and prepared an incredibly large group of early-rising volunteers for their tasks during the day.

As the teams arrived one by one, schools dropped off their service-learning posters to display the projects they've been working on all season.

Once setup was complete, Jamboree! officially started with the elementary school City Cup championship games. The girls from Aiton and Thomson and the boys from Aiton and Tubman set the tone for all the great games that would be played nonstop across 15 fields. By the conclusion of the championship games, the expansive grassy field was filled with teams from all eight wards in Washington, DC -- a true citywide event -- as well as hundreds of families, community members, and DC SCORES partners.

As tradition, all of the elementary schools gathered around DJ RBI for chants to represent their schools. One by one, teams yelled out enthusiastically as their schools were called out by Program Director Sean Hinkle.

The first stop for many for the kids included a picture frame booth, where the soccer stars got to showcase their crafting skills. Up next, Goldman Sachs volunteers provided more color to everyone's day with their face painting booth. There were also hundreds of books on display to choose from, as volunteers from Aronson made suggestions for the kids' summer reading lists.

In order to stay game-ready, the student-athletes had stations that kept them warmed up like relay races with members of the November Project, shooting practice with Penya Barcelonista, and some dodgeball to mix it up a bit with volunteers from Grant Thornton.

All the fun activities built an appetite for the teams and coaches, so Revolution Foods was there with healthy meals, which included sandwiches and fruits and veggies to keep those energy levels high for the whole day.

Just when things didn't seem like they could get better, the DC SCORES' teams got a surprise visit from everybody's favorite mascot, D.C. United's Talon. Families, volunteers, and of course the kids smiled from ear to ear as they snapped photos with Talon and danced to DJ RBI's beats.

As the day continued, the energy and enthusiasm never slumped for a second!

The day concluded with the middle school and co-ed championship games, where DC SCORES Executive Director Bethany Rubin Henderson presented the game finalists with well-deserved trophies and medals for all the players and coaches.

At the end of another amazing and successful Jamboree!, it's impossible not to recognize the support and efforts from all of our volunteers -- from just after sunrise until every cone and flag was picked up from the field. Thank you to  the volunteer groups from Aronson LLC, Goldman Sachs, Capital One, November Project DC, Hogan Lovells, Grant Thronton, Clark Construction, Bucknell Alumni, Atlas Corps, and Accenture.

Of course, we need to thank all the partners involved as well for everything they do for DC SCORES: D.C. United, Revolution Foods, DJ RBI, Safeway, Junior League of Washington's Resolution Read Committee, and Penya Barcelonista.

Jamboree! is for the community. For the families, volunteers, partners, and without a doubt the kids! Thank you all for an amazing day filled with sportsmanship, soccer, and tons and tons of fun!

DC SCORES Fall Frenzy delivers nonstop activity for over 1,000 kids

The day began in complete darkness, just an empty soccer field in NE Washington, DC. It ended with the same empty bed of green grass under a blue sky pocked with the puffiest of clouds.

In between 6:30am and 2:30pm, something happened. Something really BIG.

The 19th Annual DC SCORES Fall Frenzy took over the athletic fields at Trinity Washington University Saturday, bringing nonstop soccer games and a host of other sports and arts activities to more than 1,000 elementary school program participants.

The day began with two and a half hours of setup, was followed by a call-and-response with all the teams at 9:20am, and then a 1-2-3 DC SCORES!!! And action.

From there, every DC SCORES team -- all kids and coaches proudly wearing their jerseys, the colors ranging from neon pink, to dark blue, from neon green, to yellow, you get the point; the teams covered the spectrum -- rotated between activities.

Six soccer games at a time were played on the main Trinity field. Up the hill, two more games were conducted at a time. And down the hill, on the lower level, teams switched between an event-record 11 stations all run by DC SCORES program partners and volunteers.

Relay races. Dodgeball. A soccer skills station. Poetry writing. Coloring and drawing. The shooting accuracy station. Facepainting. Picture-taking with D.C. United mascot Talon. And even autographs with DCU players Charlie Horton and Chris Korb.

The event wouldn't have been at all possible without the incredible support of 160-plus volunteers, many representing the dozens of SCORES partner groups who came out to help. From Safeway's huge truck arriving in the morning to deliver loads of water bottles, to AmeriHealth DC's table with lots of healthy goodies for the kids, to the George Washington Swim & Dive team -- the entire team -- picking up trash all over the grounds and breaking down goals to aid a quick exit after the kids were gone, our partners basically ran Fall Frenzy.

Here's a full list of Fall Frenzy partners. Thank you again!
CBRS American University
City Kids
Clark Construction
D.C. United
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Discovery Education
DJ RBI
Edmund Burke School
Kappa Alpha Theta
The Field School
GWU Phi Delta Psi
GWU Men's Swimming and Diving
GWU Men's Soccer
Hogan Lovells US LLP
Howard University Alpha Phi Omega
November Project DC
Promontory Financial Group
Revolution Foods
Trinity Washington University

If you asked any kid their favorite part of Fall Frenzy, you'd likely get a different answer. Many, of course, said the soccer. They relished the chance to not just play, but take on new teams from all over Washington, DC (during our regular game days, teams don't travel too far for games because of late school dismissals and traffic). Others loved the relay races. Others showed off their "Messi" facepainting. And at the end of the day, kids rushed to the table where Horton and Korb sat, handing them shoes and anything elee for autographs. Talon, obviously, was another big hit.

The action-packed day left kids, and their families, exhausted as the field quickly cleared at 2:30pm, the goals, booths and people gone within 30 minutes. By 3pm, it was as if nothing had even happened.

Those who experienced it know much better. Here's some photo evidence.

FALL FRENZY 2016 BY THE NUMBERS

• 1,000+ kids
• 160+ volunteers
• 96 soccer games
• 22 partner groups 
• 11 activity booths
• 1 mascot 

21st Annual Jamboree! puts an exclamation mark on spring DC SCORES season

Written by Jake Lloyd
Communications Manager

(View all Jamboree! photos in our Flickr and Storify albums)

The DC SCORES Jamboree! was such a big event Saturday, a team drove four hours to participate.

That's right -- the America SCORES New York team from Hamilton Grange Middle School in Harlem made the drive south to take part in the 21st edition of the culminating event of the spring DC SCORES season.

Unofficially, this marked the first time a team from one of America SCORES' 14 sites visited another city to participate in an event.  And judging from the expressions on the faces of the 50 or so Hamilton students as they played in one soccer game after another, they enjoyed the Jamboree! just as much as the 50 DC teams that congregated on the large grassy expanse at Anacostia Park.

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The day started at 5:45am as DC SCORES staff and volunteers began arriving. Why so early? Because 30 soccer goals needed to be set up and nets strung. Because dozens of tents in the booth area needed to be erected, and the supplies for each activity laid out ready for one team after another to visit (with no breaks). Because water stations needed to be placed all across the large area, and carrying or pulling huge jugs is no easy task.

Setup continued for three hours, only concluding as the elementary school City Cup championship games got underway. And as the Burrville and Marie Reed girls and Capital City and Amidon boys played exciting games, the field all around them became a sea of oranges, and whites, sky blues and dark blues, reds and greens, and blacks and grays. All of the other teams spilled across the still-wet surface, wearing their custom DC SCORES T-shirts.

Thomas, Bancroft, Hart, Tubman, Aiton, Seaton, Thomson, Miner, Brightwood, Moten, LaSalle-Backus, Imagine Hope, Orr, Raymond, Anne Beers, KIPP QUEST, H.D. Cooke -- the list goes on.

As the City Cup games concluded, Program Director Sean Hinkle huddled all the elementary schools around DJ RBI's booth, reminded everyone what soccer games are all about -- sportsmanship -- and then proceeded to point to all the teams, eliciting yells of "BARNARD!" and "TRUESDELL!" and "PAYNE!" and "LECKIE!" The list goes on.

A couple hundred yards away, former DC SCORES staff member and emcee extraordinaire for several SCORES poetry slams Charity Blackwell was doing the same kind of call-and-response for middle schools.

And then it was go time, 2,000 kids in different colored shirts dispersing and heading to the first stop of many to begin a long, exhilarating, entertaining, and fulfilling day.

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To give you a sense of everything that Jamboree! provided for its participants, here's what one school, Thomas Elementary, did during the five-hour event:

9:25 am -- The Tigers gather around a smattering of large letters on the grass under the shade of a few large trees and play "word relays." Following the prompts of Clark Construction and other volunteers, the kids spell out words and phrases related to their experience in the program.

Meanwhile the other half of the team tests their bean bag-throwing accuracy as they alternate tossing the bags into different circles and triangles 10 feet away from them.

9:50am -- Time to prepare those skills for the games! The Tigers head to their next station where a group of volunteers lead them through dribbling, heading and other soccer essential skills.

10:15am -- Game time! The Tigers in their white uniforms take on Miner in a girls game followed by a boys game. Smiles are everywhere as the kids race up and down the field.

11:05am -- Let's decorate! The Tigers head to the facepainting station, where they give orders -- their jersey number, a heart, stars, etc. -- to the incredibly artistic volunteers.

11:30am -- Looking their best, it's time for Thomas' photo shoot in front of the D.C. United banner. But not before they get autographs from pro soccer player Patrick Nyarko. After their official team photo, they celebrate by testing out their hula hooping skills while moving to DJ RBI's beats.

11:55am -- It's back to the action as the Tigers take on Marie Reed, a school from the Westside of the city that they've never played before. It's a cool feeling getting to meet and play against a team they haven't faced before.

12:45pm -- Finally, lunch! Having played two soccer games, hula hooped, and more, the Tigers devour their healthy sandwiches, fruit and veggies provided by Revolution Foods.

1:10pm -- It's arts & crafts time -- and a chance for the Tigers to digest their food -- with the awesome volunteer squad from Wells Fargo. Aided by the company's volunteers, the kids use popsicle sticks and glue to create a framed photo of the team that was taken during the DC SCORES season. A memento to take with them!

1:35pm -- Final game of the day! The Tigers take on Tubman Elementary, another Westside school from a neighborhood 6.7 miles away from their school. Jamboree! truly brings different parts of DC together.

2:25pm -- Exhausted but still wearing those smiles, the Tigers begin the long walk across the field to their bus. Sure, their day didn't include the Penya Barcelonista soccer shooting station -- test your accuracy! -- or the November Project-led relay race station where the competition was fierce but the giggles of joy frequent all day long. But overall, they had experienced a lot, closing out the spring DC SCORES season with a bang. They got to hang out with D.C. United mascot Talon. They got to check out all of the DC SCORES teams' service-learning poster boards demonstrating the impact each program made in their community. And they got to do everything else we just mentioned.

The same can be said of the other 49 sites that had programming this spring, and those kids from New York who made the trip. The middle schoolers enjoyed a nonstop action-packed soccer tournament that included three divisions -- boys, girls and co-ed -- and 57 games including championships.

The largest Jamboree! in DC SCORES history wouldn't have been possible without the hundreds of volunteers -- many of whom stayed the entire day from setup until the last scraps of trash were picked up from the field after 3pm. A huge thank you to partners D.C. United, FAAR, Wells Fargo, Clark Construction, the Goldman Sachs volunteer group, November Project DC, Penya Barcelonista, the Edmund Burke School volunteers, Revolution Foods, and of course DJ RBI.

View all Jamboree! photos in our Flickr album.

Communities, partners come together for 18th Annual DC SCORES Fall Frenzy

Written by Jake Lloyd
Communications Manager
@jakelam2116

View photos on Flickr
View the Social Media Storify HERE

If anyone wasn't sure about DC SCORES' whole-child approach to building teams -- not just through sports, or the arts, or academics -- Saturday's Fall Frenzy proved it.

Here was the scene for the 18th annual outdoor mid-season celebration of the fall.

On the main soccer field (and up a hill, too) at Trinity Washington University, kids played eight soccer games -- one after another, the girls followed by the boys. Large throngs of family members and friends lined the sidelines often three-deep, cheering on the kids while dancing to DJ RBI's beats and posing for selfies with D.C. United mascot Talon.

Neon yellow shirts dotted the fields, a large cadre of volunteers new and old running the games, having fun with the kids, and doing some teaching as well.

When the horn blew, each of the 30-plus teams picked up their belongings and walked -- or ran or skipped -- down the hill to ... poetry and books!

Thanks to our longtime partner Junior League of Washington, every kid received a book. At the adjacent table, each child also wrote a spooky Halloween poem using the writing tools they've developed in creative-expression workshops since early September.

Poem and book in hand, kids then took a seat for a much-needed rest while getting their faces painted -- yet another station run entirely by engaged, energetic and, of course, artistic volunteers!

And then before heading back to the soccer field, kids loosened those leg muscles and got in all kinds of laughs crab-walking, three-legged racing and doing jumping jacks at the relay race station led by awesome free-fitness partner November Project.

But wait, there were two more stops before returning to game play -- the D.C. United and Penya Barcelonista shooting stations. At the D.C. United stop, kids tested out their leg strength trying to kick the ball as hard as possible into an inflatable moon-bounce type apparatus. At the Penya station led by a group of high school kids from the Edmund Burke School, kids were taken through accuracy drills as they aimed for points targets.

By the time teams returned to the soccer fields, they were well-rested, feeling artistic, full of giggles and more than prepared for another game.

Fall Frenzy wouldn't have been possible for more than 1,000 kids and hundreds of family and community members without the support and bodies provided by our many partners. Revolution Foods brought healthy lunches for everyone; DrinkMore Water donated all the water; D.C. United brought the always-popular Talon; the partners mentioned above ran all the booths; and approximately 125 volunteers -- including a huge group from American University -- made the day run smoothly from beginning setup at 5:45am to leaving the facility in perfect condition at 3pm.

And every kid, having experienced a bit of everything, was exhausted and ready for a nap!