Sara Kelly Wins Shine a Light Award

On Sunday, September 18, Sara Kelly received the Shine a Light Award from the Swarthmore Centennial Foundation in recognition of her leadership in making Swarthmore a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable place to live.

As Executive Director of Swarthmore Recreation Association (SRA), Sara has placed inclusion at the core of the organization’s mission. Like the name of her award, Sara’s energy is truly electrifying. On Saturday mornings at Henderson Field, she both supplies and feeds on the frenzy of whistles and kicks. “I want everyone to play, and the only way you’re going to get everyone to play is to convince people that it doesn’t matter what you look like, what your level of athleticism is or isn’t, what your past experience is. Sport is not just for jocks… I think there is something about being on a team that can be so good for everybody.” SRA has expanded and added programs for those who might not have considered themselves athletes, and the inclusive tactics have worked. SRA’s participation has grown 100% over the last 12 months.

Maurice Eldrige, longtime educator, Swarthmore College Administrator, and Centennial Foundation Trustee, describes the power of “education as modeling.” Through this award, the Centennial Foundation celebrates Sara for her role in educating young people by modeling the spirit of inclusion.

Sara has actively sought to rectify gender-based barriers to participation in sports. When Kathleen Raffaele’s child came out as gender non-binary, Sara worked with her and her family to ensure her child could continue with their sport in the manner that felt most natural to them. This work included launching a campaign to get the larger regional sports league to change its computer

registration systems in order to accommodate the child’s specific gender identity. “Given the larger national context of many states passing bills excluding transgender children from sports, it was a relief to be treated with such care and dignity by Sara. Shortly after my child was registered and was all set with their sport, SRA published their soccer evaluation sessions which included sessions for boys, girls, and non-binary kids. This sends a huge signal to the community that not only will diversity be accepted and included, but normalized as part of our regular youth sports programs,” said Raffaele.

Sara has also made affordable and accessible programs central to SRA’s mission. “If you ask for scholarship money, the answer is yes,” Sara explained. And this shines through in the numbers: SRA has given out more scholarships in the past 30 days than in the past three years combined. “That is because we’ve made it easier, and we’re pulling more people.” Sara said, explaining that the larger pool of people allows SRA to offer more extensive intramural programs. “Swarthmore is a small community, so it is nice to have people coming from other communities, and it is nice to know we can support kids from other communities to give them the opportunity to play.” She also works to keep prices affordable to allow kids and adults to try new things. SRA actively discourages youth specializing in sports at a young age in favor of giving kids a healthy experience and exposure to life sports. “One of my favorite programs is adult volleyball. It is a diverse group of people, not just in terms of age, gender, and race, but in terms of socioeconomic status. And they all bake cookies every week… Whenever I am feeling low, I go to adult volleyball. I’d like to see lots and lots more of that.”

Sara summed up her view on inclusivity in sport. “Everybody should play. Plain and simple… Whatever that takes.”