The Granada office began February with a huge push to recruit participants for our newly starting season (February-May). These efforts led us to multiple radio shows: Erupción Deportiva, Sí Mujer and Deportes Granada where we had the opportunity to not only recruit but speak about SWB, and also to San Matías, a soccer complex that houses the main men’s soccer league, where we hosted a friendly match and halftime competition to generate interest in SWB. Without question the most interesting, gratifying and effective recruitment tool was making house visits to all of the families of the girls that have been active participants in our regular programming and/or January camp. The Nicoyas, Estrellas and Mariposas broke off into their respective groups, organized their participants according to barrio and then spent the better part of last week canvassing the city and having conversations about SWB with over 60 households. The families of our participants were extremely welcoming and generally excited to talk about their daughters, nieces or granddaughters involvement in the program. The conversations were a great forum to discuss each player’s development and what special qualities they bring to team and also allowed parents/guardians to discuss any of their questions or concerns. Hopefully talking to each household individually shows our participants and their families that SWB is invested in their development and will encourage all to have growing trust and confidence in our programming.
Recruitment week concluded with the first-ever official registration for SWB Granada. For three days, Tres Pisos was filled with girls who wanted to sign up for our spring season. It was great to see nearly all of the girls whose houses we had visited as well as some brand new faces. Many participants were even accompanied by their parents or guardians and the registration gave many of them the opportunity to see the office for the first time. The registration was a huge success. All three groups surpassed expectations of how many girls would sign up and the event generated a lot of excitement for this coming season. Every girl who registered was also given a back-to-school kit complete with a notebook, pencils, pens, erasers and a pencil sharpener so they are ready for school registration next week too. Thank you to all of the volunteers from January camp who brought down school supplies! As this season begins both spirits and numbers are high. Now the challenge is to maintain all of that through May.
