Maegan Skahil
Maegan Skahil
Intern, Chicago Fire Soccer
TOYOTA PARK; Bridgeview, IL
This past summer I was given the opportunity to work for the Chicago Fire Soccer Team's community relations department and the FireWorks for Kids Foundation. The first week there I was able to sit in on a meeting where the board members of the foundation gave over $50,000 to different charities. This set of grants put the foundation over $1,000,000 given out through grants to the Chicago community. Seeing this take place was extremely significant for me because I want to be able to reach children with the work I do. Every day the foundation works on making a child's life a little brighter.
Besides helping with the fundraisers I was able to fill donation requests, answer fan mail, and help out with a lot of exciting events. Three events that were fun were Kids Night Out, the Gold Cup, and the Nothing But Nets/MLS ceremony.
Kids Night Out is a game in which the Fire, with the help of local businesses, distributes tickets to underprivileged children who normally do not get the chance to come to games. The game was on July 12 th and there were about 10,000 children in attendance, a new record for this event.
The Gold Cup is an international soccer tournament that is played in many different cities around the United States. The finals were held at Soldier Field in Chicago and the Fire staff worked the games. The final was USA vs. Mexico with USA winning in the championship. The Fire got the chance to display the cup at one of their home games because of our work.
The Nothing But Nets and MLS ceremony occurred before a Fire home game which celebrated the joining of the two organizations to gain awareness and funds for malaria in Africa. Luol Deng Foundation was also there for their work with Nothing But Nets and I escorted Deng around TOYOTA PARK.
I learned a lot not only about the major league sports industry but about myself. After this internship I know that I want to work for a team or organization that puts as much effort into improving their community as they do recruiting fans. The Fire is a great organization with people who care about one another and is definitely a place I would like to work at in the future.
