When we started this historic fourth season of NWSL, we were enamored with our Twitter-hip new coach and snazzy lineup, but mindful of the challenges we would face losing so many players to the Rio Olympics. One thing was clear: the Thorns would need our support more than ever. We needed to be organized and loud, and continue to set the bar for other NWSL SGs starting to make more visible efforts.

Thanks to the success of the tifo donation pin and our already-solid merchandise sales, Riveters’ operating budget sat at a comfortable level early in the season. It became clear we had the capacity to do a bit more.

I volunteered to represent the Riveters on (read: invited myself to) the Community Outreach committee for 107IST. Since we didn’t have a specific seat there already, and I was kind of a noob, I just brought cookies and hoped for the best.

Needless to say, they were all extremely welcoming and eager to help us extend our impact. As it turns out, all I needed to do was ask a few simple questions and magical things started to happen around me.

We chose a handful of local organizations for our Match Day Donation Drives, anticipating possibly meager first-attempt results…and we were totally wrong. Let’s just say I now know the exact diaper capacity of a 2010 Prius and it’s pretty impressive.

By the end of the 2016 season, we made over a dozen donation drops from the match day drives. It felt so good to stand there and just stuff the bare shelves at some of these places. Our mission of choosing severely underfunded organizations made me see just how quickly those resources get used, though.

In 2016 we also sold A TON of merchandise. New t-shirts, some really nice patches and buttons, and a trusty old bandana had our bank balance looking very tidy, indeed. After sorting out next season’s operating needs, I am proud to say the Rose City Riveters were able to donate $5000 back into our community for the first time!

Five $1000 donations were made this week to:

Rose Haven http://rosehaven.org/

Raphael House http://raphaelhouse.com/

ImpactNW https://impactnw.org/

OutsideIN http://outsidein.org/

The Living Room http://www.thelivingroomyouth.org/

These funds are going to have a huge impact on these small, local organizations, and I can’t thank you all enough for pitching in cash, great ideas, supplies, vehicles, and braun when you had them available. We have some new volunteers joining the ranks, and planning for 2017 is well underway. I am so excited to see how much bigger, better and, most importantly, LOUDER the Rose City Riveters can be!