University of Richmond Athletics
Summer Spider Series: C. Stevenson & Wilson
07/22/2014 | Women's Lacrosse
The Richmond Spiders women's lacrosse team takes full advantage of resources that the University of Richmond provides during their summer months by studying or taking internships abroad, or staying in the U.S. to take classes and gain work experience. During the summer, the members of the team will be sharing their summer adventures.
This is the final installment in our Summer Spider Series detailing some of our Spiders' summer adventures. Follow these posts to learn more about a few Spiders and what they have been up to this summer!
For previous entries into the Summer Spider Series, click this link to our Series Page...
Summer Spider Series: Rising juniors Charlett Stevenson, an
international business major and Spanish and art minor and Brooke Wilson, a healthcare and society major with a pre-track to physical therapy, were selected to participate in a Lacrosse Volunteer Corps service program with Fields of Growth in Kingston, Jamaica this summer. Hear more about Brooke and Charlett's experience in their own words below…
BW: During the first week of August, I had the privilege of partaking in a service trip in Kingston, Jamaica with the charity program Fields of Growth (FOG). The more I learned about the program, the more excited and interested I became – on the trip we were to stay in the communities local Jamaicans themselves lived in. This program would give the opportunity to experience Jamaican culture while also giving back to their community by coaching the game of lacrosse with Kingston's Youth. I saw this as a great experience and one that I did not want to pass up.
Fundraising for the trip was the first step in the process. Fortunately, I am a member of a very generous lacrosse community who shared my own enthusiasm for the program, and further enabled this service trip to become a reality for me. Upon arriving at the high school we stayed in 
for the week. It was quickly recognizable that we were directly in the heart of Kingston, Jamaica. The first day we travelled to Nine Mile, a town famously known as Bob Marley's home community. There we spent the day meeting and speaking with the local people, sharing in a traditional Jamaican meal with them, and at the end of the day being challenged to a soccer match by the Nine Mile soccer team. Throughout our time spent there, we also delivered care packages to households in need and taught lacrosse to many children residing in Nine Mile. That day alone was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. I had never felt so connected and a part of a community - just from getting to know its members and sharing
something simple that I love, lacrosse.
For the remainder of the week back in Kingston, we ran lacrosse camp for high school as well as middle and elementary school level youth. In addition, we continued our outreach to Kingston through service acts such as visiting Sister's of Charity and Mathew 25 homes for the abandoned elderly and young children with HIV. In one week's time I would have never imagined I could become so closely attached to the people I met, coached, and shared in their culture with. Participating in a group such as FOG, it was inspiring to see just how much both the volunteers and the players cared for the advancement of the sport and the connections that came with it.
It was an amazing feeling being able to take my lacrosse knowledge, and encourage and help developing players accomplish a task, possibly only made possible through FOG. The expansion of lacrosse in high schools and middle schools of Jamaica has significant impact on the lives of Jamaican youth, as it provides them with another outlet, another task, and another passion to succeed in. I am so grateful to have spent my time with such passionate, loving, and appreciative campers. The entire experience was extremely humbling. Seeing new players be given their very 
first lacrosse stick and watch their eyes light up with joy is an experience I will never forget. I am so thankful that lacrosse provided me with such an amazing opportunity to give back. I hope to continue to share my love for the sport for as long as I can.
CS: We were forwarded a community engagement email early in the past year from our assistant coach and this Lacrosse Volunteer Corps program with Fields of Growth captivated both Brooke and I. Being student athlete lacrosse players ourselves we thought there was no better way to give back to the lacrosse community than to grow the game.
After arriving in Kingston, we were housed in a boys Jesuit high school with about 30 other volunteers who shared our passion for the game. Every day we got the opportunity to coach girls and boys whose ages ranged from seven to 20 years old. For me personally, the best feeling was seeing the pure joy on the kids' faces when we gave them their first stick or a torn, used pair of cleats for them to play in. It was an extremely eye opening experience to be a part of seeing how one small insignificant thing to us back home could mean the absolute world to these young kids. Although the days in Jamaica were long and no cooler than 90 degrees, it didn't stop the kids from coming to lacrosse camp every day for three hours, along with the extra hour early they showed up for! Seeing this pure passion and interest and love for something that we were helping to give in these kids was more humbling then anything I have experienced.
Along with teaching lacrosse, we were able to immerse ourselves in the Jamaican culture. Although everyone we met shared a similar outlook on life and the world, one man in particular helped change my outlook on things. His name was Lion and he was in a band that performed for us one night. Watching him play in the band, you could see his happiness and passion and he made you feel it too. In talking with him afterward, he emphasized the main point to be happy for what you have and anything else is a gift. He talked about how to never take one single thing for granted and find love in everything you can. Seeing this man truly appreciate his life and be so genuinely happy reminded me that happiness is not something we can buy, nor does it come from possessing material comfort.
To say the least, this trip gave back to me more then I gave to it. I come away from Jamaica with many life lessons and the joy of spreading the love of lacrosse through the Jamaican youth.
