Team Tea Party
Virginia Wesleyan women’s lacrosse players make a special connection with one special little girl
By Edward Phillips | March 2, 2011
(NORFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH) “She is head to toe pink and purple and just the cutest thing you’d ever see.”
Virginia Wesleyan women’s lacrosse Coach Fran Pochily is clearly charmed by four-year-old Kristen Toxey. She isn’t the only one.
With the help of Courtney Williams, a junior lacrosse player at VWC, Coach Pochily introduced Kristen to the entire women’s lacrosse team last fall through a national organization called Friends of Jaclyn (FOJ), which offers support for children with pediatric brain tumors by partnering them with sports teams.
Pochily first heard of the organization at a coaching convention. The father of the organization’s namesake, Jaclyn Murphy, was a speaker at the event. Jaclyn was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor when she was nine years old.
Formed in 2005, FOJ matches these special children with sports teams via an “adoption” process that allows the team to form a long-term bond with the child and his or her family. Kristen Toxey has an older sister, six-year-old Elizabeth, who has been partnered with the VWC women’s basketball team, and a younger brother named Billy who has Down Syndrome.
FOJ has assisted in more than 230 such adoptions in its six-year existence as the organization has gained prominence at high schools and colleges around the country. FOJ currently has more than 1,000 schools waiting in the wings to be paired with a child.
The VWC women’s lacrosse team recently hosted a tea party and adoption ceremony for little Kristen. All of the team members got dressed up and made cupcakes and cookies.
“It’s a big change for the girls on the team,” says Coach Pochily, “because this time of year they usually live in sweats and team gear.”
The team is no stranger to giving back to the community, however. They have participated in the Special Olympics and Stop Hunger Now, and they host an annual youth clinic, which the women of the team run by volunteer power alone. Yet their work with FOJ is special because it fosters a consistent relationship.
“FOJ is a wonderful organization that has helped countless children in its few short years of existence—it’s a wonderful thing for college students to experience,” says Coach Pochily. “As college students, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. It’s easy to become wrapped up in yourself. We’re just trying to remind them of what’s important.”
Leona Baker contributed to this article.