Field of Dreams 2024 Gala Program Book

Back in 1995, the founders of Girls in the Game likely weren’t thinking about where they would be in 29 years. Instead they focused on delivering programs that offered opportunities for around 100 girls to learn sports and the lessons that come with it. 

Those founders probably never imagined when they held their first Field of Dreams anniversary event in a gym, serving hot dogs to people in running shoes, that 29 years later they would welcome more than 500 guests to the Intercontinental Grand Ballroom on Michigan Avenue. They wouldn’t have imagined professional videos, high-caliber honorees, or that, in those 29 years more than 60,000 girls would take part in Girls in the Game programs. 

Instead, they focused on the work that was ahead of them with determination. That one word is the very thing that can transform an idea into an action that will change lives. And those lives changed aren’t just the ones of the girls who have come through programming. It’s the lives of volunteers, Board members, school 

partners, and staff members. Because it takes all of these people to grow something as long-lasting as Girls in the Game. It takes not just determination, but a Determined Nation.