NWSL Players’ Fire Recovery Fund
“Everyone’s okay.” That was the first message that made sense after Tiff texted me a half a dozen pictures of a suburban home and the cars on fire outside.
All five humans and both dogs in the house got out alive. Now it’s time for us to help Tiffany Weimer, Tori Huster and Britt Eckerstrom rebuild their lives after losing so much so quickly.
The Eckerstroms, Pam and Kurt, are the quintessential soccer parents. Their daughter, Britt, first attended SoccerPlus Goalkeeper School as a young teenager. She loves soccer, she loves goalkeeping and she loves Penn State, so 2015 was a special year as she took her place between the posts for Penn State’s run to the National Championship, their first.
While Britt was at college, the Eckerstroms did what they do, they offered to help. They opened their home to Tiffany Weimer, a Penn State alum and Tori Huster, a veteran of the final season of WPS before joining the Washington Spirit at the inception of the NWSL.
All five are alive today because the smoke detectors in the house worked. That is the most important thing and something I urge all of you to check this weekend (every time the clocks change, change the batteries in your smoke detector).
But the next morning they woke up facing a harsh reality. These players who have sacrificed so much to lead a generation of women to make women’s professional soccer a reality and have meek financial resources and constant uncertainty are now, two days before preseason, trying to pull their lives together from the ashes.
Britt’s car was packed for her first professional season in Rochester for the Western New York Flash — the car and everything in it was destroyed. Yesterday Tiffany and Tori went to Dick’s Sporting Goods with the support of the Spirit to get the most basic things (shin guards and sports bras and the like) before training begins.
It’s not yet known why the fire started or how, but it is believed it started in the garage.
Please donate generously to help these three remarkable women get back on their feet. No one deserves to go through this but this is where they find themselves. So let’s show them the power of the soccer community, let’s stand with them in this moment.
This will give you a sense of what they’re facing, having lost almost everything. If you have other ideas of how to help, please feel free to e-mail me at adicicco@gmail.com
