2003 Female Sports Ambassador of the Year!

Andee Matthews, of Chelsea, Alabama who is a Briarwood Christian High School sophomore, has been named 2003 Female Sports Ambassador of the Year. This is People to People’s most prestigious award for Sports Ambassadors.

“I love basketball. A friend nominated me and I received an invitation to attend an informational meeting regarding the trips People to People offers youth interested in playing sports internationally. After the meeting, I knew it was something I really wanted to do. It was a once in a lifetime experience that most kids my age just dream of, but it’s out there for anyone who really wants to go and play sports.”

Last year, Andee traveled with People to People to the Switzerland Invitational. Her Sports Ambassador group arrived in Paris, France just in time to see Lance Armstrong cross the finish line in the Tour de France. From Paris they traveled to Dijon, France and Luzern, Switzerland. They stopped in Frieburg, Germany where they completed a day-long service project. This trip combined the opportunity to play in a three day basketball tournament against teams from Yugoslavia and Switzerland with sightseeing including touring the City of Paris, going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, visiting the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Swiss Alps. She traveled with youth from all across the United States and made new friends nationally and internationally. “It wasn’t all fun and games. We had to practice just about every day. One of the hardest things was playing basketball under international rules. That was a challenge.”

Andee was nominated by a People to People coach and submitted an essay about her travel experience which won her the Female Sports Ambassador of the Year award. This award includes a full-tuition scholarship for travel to any of People to People’s Sports Ambassadors destinations during the summer of 2004. You can read Andee’s essay at: http://www.sportsambassadors.org by clicking on Award Winners. “My options are the Dutch Classic which would be competition and sightseeing in England and the Netherlands, A.I.S. Hoopfest in New Zealand and Australia, or the Switzerland Invitational again. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia.”

The People to People foundation was founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower who believed that citizens of different nations, if able to communicate directly, would solve their differences and find a way to live in peace. The Sports Ambassador Program allows young athletes to encounter, through an international experience, people who are very much like themselves.