Ellie Abraham received her award and presented her gift to EmBe’s Executive Director for Youth Programs, Stacy Stahl at Brookings High School’s Athletic Awards.

 

South Dakota State Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year, Ellie Abraham, awarded EmBe with a $1000 grant to help accomplish our mission to empower women and families to enrich lives.

Abraham is a junior at Brookings High School. It’s her second time being named Gatorade’s South Dakota Cross Country Runner of the Year. While this award recognizes incredible athletic performance, it also highlights athletes with high academic achievement and positive character both on and off the cross country course.

This grant will help support the Girls on the Run program in the Brookings area. Girls on the Run is an after-school program that teaches 3rd through 5th grade girls about confidence building, resolving conflicts, making healthy choices and community service through interactive running games and lessons. Over 60 girls participated in the program in the 2018-2019 academic year.

“We are truly humbled that Ellie sought out Girls on the Run to support with this Gatorade gift.  Running has been such an important part of Ellie’s life, and gifts like these can assist us with empowering even more girls to get involved in a confidence boosting program like Girls on the Run and realize their potential too!” remarked Stacy Stahl, Executive Director of Youth Programs at EmBe.

 

All 607 Gatorade State Player of the Year recipients are awarded a grant to donate to the organization of their choosing. Each Player of the Year can also submit an essay about why their organization is deserving of a Spotlight Grant, which is a larger monetary award. Gatorade awards 12 Spotlight Grants, one for each sport recognized by the Player of the Year program.

To keep up to date on the latest happenings, become a fan of Gatorade Player of the Year on Facebook and follow the conversation on Twitter #GatoradePOY. For more on Gatorade Play It Forward, the Gatorade Player of the Year, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit PlayerOfTheYear.Gatorade.com

 

About Gatorade Player of the Year

The Gatorade Player of the Year is an athletic award program that annually recognizes student-athletes not only for outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character in 12 different sports: football, boys and girls basketball, baseball, boys and girls soccer, softball, boys and girls track & field, girls volleyball and boys and girls cross country. The Gatorade Player of the Year award is the most prestigious award in high school sports. In existence for more than 30 years, past winners include Peyton Manning, Abby Wambach, Karl-Anthony Towns, Derek Jeter and many other sports icons.

Play It Forward is Gatorade’s cause marketing platform, which empowers every one of the Gatorade Player of the Year award winners to choose a local or national youth sport organization to receive a $1,000 grant from Gatorade. Gatorade State Players of the Year then have the opportunity to submit an essay explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve Spotlight Grants, which awards $10,000 to the organization.