Philadelphia Youth Basketball Nonprofit Organization’s invited Facilitator Melonie Butler of I Choose To Win’s to deliver a motivational message to girls in its program as part of its A Woman’s Word segment on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at Germantown Friends in Philadelphia. The program led by Randy Butler and coached by Billy Owens has approximately 50 girls from the Philadelphia-area participating and also invites women guest speakers to visit during practices to help basketball players grow in confidence, self-esteem and increase exposure to career paths. As an invited guest speaker, Melonie Butler’s message and charge to girls in the program centered around “Intentional Decision-Making,” encouraging the girls to become more aware of the choices they make and actions they take today, which shape the trajectory of their lives tomorrow.
In an activity geared to engage students and amplify youth voices, girls were invited to share an intentional choice aligned with an aspirational goal that they would make from that day forward to grow as an individual and a basketball player. In return, they were gifted a goal-setting agenda book to track their progress in their aspirational goal attainment journey. Several students courageously stood up garnering the attention of their peers to share their specific choice to grow as an individual and player. The responses sounded like:
“I will choose to practice left-handed drills for 30 minutes per day to strengthen my performance and prove I can do hard things.”
“I choose to dedicate my time to what I love.”
“I choose to be more self-aware and learn more about myself.”
“I choose to practice French and Basketball to become better at both.”
“I choose to get my grades up so I can continue to play ball.”
It was a gift to serve the youth in this fun, energetic and reflective way. To inquire about a community outreach initiative, please contact admin@ichoosetowin.org.