Stephanie Eyler usually sees girls stop participating in youth sports once they hit sixth grade.
Faced with adolescence and bombarded with idealized images of femininity, many girls decide to ditch sports altogether, said Eyler, who works in the Montgomery County Department of Recreation.
It’s the reason why the department put together the first-ever HERtime2shine Expo, set for Feb. 13 at Westfield Montgomery mall in Bethesda.
“We’re trying to change that mentality,” Eyler said. “We want girls to know that it doesn’t matter what level you’re at, there’s an opportunity to get involved.”
The expo will feature local sports leagues, fitness companies, instructors and women from other sports-related businesses as a way to encourage girls from kindergarten age to high school age to participate in sports.
It will come on the heels of the 30th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day set for Feb. 3.
Eyler and fellow recreation specialist Trish Walsh came up with the idea for the expo after researching what other communities do around the day, which is set up by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Tennis legend Billie Jean King founded that group in 1974 to help provide girls with full access to sports.
The county will be signing up exhibitors for the event through mid-January and anticipates hundreds of girls and their parents looking to register for sports programs.
The expo will center on a scavenger hunt-like contest in which participants find the many information booths and tables scattered throughout the mall.
Eyler grew up playing soccer and played in college, an experience she said she couldn’t imagine not having now that she coaches the sport in Montgomery County.
“When you stop playing, that’s the point where I realized the impact that’s it made on me,” Eyler said. “It’s been so instrumental. I can’t imagine not having it as part of my life or career path. I really made lifelong friends and learned so much more than just the sport.”
