Sky Cares stresses sports diversity at fest

Sky Cares stresses sports diversity at fest

The Skys annual Fitness Fest had a great turnout before Fridays game vs. the Connecticut Sun.

Sky Cares welcomed 12 childrens groups, including Girl Scouts of Chicago/Indiana and South Region and Big Brother Big Sister, to the North Lot of the Allstate Arena to take part in a host of special activities put on by over ten sports organizations.

Erika Swilley, President of Sky Cares, headed the event to promote awareness and overall fitness by showing children a wide variety of ways to be active and healthy.

We invited around 1,000 kids to partake in different fun sports activities, Swilley said. Were trying to get them to learn how to be fit, how to eat right and expose them to sports they might not normally be exposed to. They also got to come to the game and enjoy a healthy dinner.

Each participating organization offered a unique activity, giving each child a lot of options. The Chicago Wolves allowed players to practice their slap shot on street hockey nets complete with a wooden goalie and targets at each corner. The Lattof YMCA set up a climbing wall, Red Star Chicago hosted a soccer challenge and Bollywood Dance encourage kids to bust a move to music provided by DJ Malik.

Girls in the Game, one of the biggest contributors to the Fest, offered several different games led by President and CEO Amy Skeen.

Girls in the Game has been involved with this event since the beginning, Skeen said. The whole focus was to really bring the power of sports to girls combining traditional sports that they know like volleyball and basketball with sports they dont know like rugby and lacrosse. We wanted to give them a chance to play and meet girls from different backgrounds and get together and celebrate at the end by watching the amazing Sky play basketball.

Following the event, each of the groups were invited to watch the Sky warm up and enjoy a free dinner, before cheering on the Sky against the Sun to cap off the evening.