Sport 4 Peace co-founder to address Girls Inc. Committee of 100

Sarah Hillyer, co-founder of Sport 4 Peace, will be the guest speaker at the Girls Inc. of Oak Ridge annual Committee of 100 luncheon on Feb. 15 at New Hope Center, 602 Scarboro Road, Oak Ridge.

The annual luncheon honors a select group of women who each contribute $100 or more to help address the growth and development of girls through programs offered at Girls Inc. The luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 15. Girls Inc. invites women of the community to join the committee. To become a member of the Committee of 100 and attend the luncheon, contact Carol Mullane, executive director of Girls Inc. of Oak Ridge, at  (865) 482-4475.

Hillyer and Ashleigh Huffman, who both researched the intersection of sport with peace building and community development while pursuing graduate degrees at the University of Tennessee, founded the nonprofit Sport 4 Peace to help improve the quality and availability of sporting opportunities for girls and women around the world.

Since 1993, Sport 4 Peace, in cooperation with Global Sports Partners, has conducted more than 50 sports camps and clinics for girls, women, refugees and individuals with disabilities in 11 countries. Sport 4 Peace envisions sport as a means of understanding different cultures and empowering women

Sport 4 Peace recently brought a group of young women from Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain and other North African and Middle Eastern countries to visit girls at Girls Inc., sharing their common mission of empowering girls. Another visit is planned to bring women athletes from Senegal to visit Girls Inc. later this month.

Hillyer serves as director of the Center for Sport, Peace, and Society at the University of Tennessee, a collaboration between the university and Sport 4 Peace that promotes cross-cultural understanding between UT students and diverse communities through sport-based service. She teaches a service learning class created to help meet the health and social needs of refugees living in Knoxville.

Hillyer received her doctoral degree from UT in sport and exercise science with a concentration in sport sociology. She holds a master’s degree from Murray State University and a bachelor’s from Liberty University, where she played basketball. Her dissertation relates her experience as a women’s softball coach in Iran, examining the role of sport as a tool for dialogue and peace building between Iranian and American women.

Girls Inc. of Oak Ridge is an affiliate of Girls Inc., a national nonprofit organization that advocates for girls and offers programs that inspire girls to be strong, smart and bold. Girls Inc. provides programs that are carefully researched and evaluated to provide girls with the support, skills, and abilities to achieve their potential. Today, Girls Inc. of Oak Ridge serves more than 500 girls in after-school, athletic and summer camp programs, providing a safe and affirming environment for them.