Dear Taylor:
I have been a huge fan of yours since I first heard the song "Tim McGraw". You
are such an inspiration to me in so many ways. You are a multi-talented singer,
song writer, musician, caring philanthropist and a fantastic role model to all
young girls and women. I have read some of your history and know you had
some hard experiences in junior high school with mean girls, and look at you
now! For all of those reasons, I wanted to share a story with you about my
Ringette team and a movement we created called "Friends First".
My name is Kehler Koss and I am 15 years old living in Calgary, Alberta,
Canada. Although you have played a concert here, I'm not sure you know how
long and cold our winters can be. Winter sports are huge here and I am a proud
player of a team sport called Ringette. Ringette is an all-girls sport that is
currently celebrating it's 50 year anniversary in Canada. Many think it closely
resembles hockey, but really it is more like basketball on ice. We skate on ice
with straight sticks that we stab and shoot with and a rubber blue ring, instead of
a puck. The thing I love most about ringette, other than the speed and
competitiveness, is the lifelong friends I have made in the short 8 years I have
been playing the sport. These girls are the best!
Last season, my team was very fortunate to have a Team Patron by the name of
Hazel Skinner. Hazel is now 86 years old and has become ringette' s biggest
fan. She is also an inspiration and mentor to us all and we learn so much about
her and her interesting life experiences every time we have the opportunity
to spend time with her. Hazel provided our team with some money to cover
costs associated with our travel budget last year, with the condition that use
some of the money to be charitable or to "pay it forward" with some real effort. At
a team tea party in her very cool house, "Friends First" was created.
"Friends First" is an organization that promotes sisterhood among opponents and
team mates. It was created with the goal of girls everywhere feeling accepted,
supported and having a sense of belonging within their sport, their community
and in society. We created red skate laces that we handed out to our
competition throughout Alberta and to other teams in other provinces across
Canada that we played in our many tournaments over the season. The skate
laces are worn in your right skate, because that is the right thing to do, as a
reminder to strive hard to be competitive but to always be "Friends First". In
addition, we invited all the Under 12 teams in Calgary to participate in gym
sessions where we ran several team building activities, pre-game warm-ups, and
welcomed them into our new sisterhood. After the sessions, we gave them the
same challenge given to us by Hazel. We challenged them to pay it forward to
girls in their sport, school, and community and to strive hard in all their
competitions but to remain "Friends First".
I have attached two video clips to this email. The first one was put together by
my team mates last year explaining "Friends First" and how it got started and the
second one shows you how we made it to the local news. We also have a brand
new website that has just launched and you may want to check it out
at: www.friendsfirstringette.com<http://www.friendsfirstringette.com>.
So if you have actually read this email to here you are probably wondering why I
am writing to you. The main reason is because you are such an inspiration to
young women all across the world. The way you conduct yourself in such a
positive manner pays it forward to all girls who respect and look up to you. I
wanted to share our story with you to show you how female role models at age
23 like you and at age 86 like Hazel, can inspire us to be kind to each other, to
look out for each other, to value differences and to be "Friends First". I hope the
next time you bring your tour to Calgary, we could get you a pair of skates, a red
lace and show you in person what we have created with "Friends First".
Enjoy the rest of your tour, and have a Happy Holiday season!
Sincerely,
Kehler Koss