EMPOWER
The Austen Everett Foundation works to empower kids in their fight against cancer through the strength and support of professional and collegiate athletic teams.
HONOR
Within the AEF Honorary Team Captain Program a kid battling cancer becomes the "Honorary Team Captain” for a day, providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to benefit from the powerful support that a team environment can provide.
INSPIRE
Through the Power of Sport, AEF is dedicated to changing the way kids fight cancer. AEF programs create incredibly dynamic and inspiring memories that captains can take with them through treatment and beyond. Together we UNITE2FIGHT.
AUSTEN'S STORY 1986-2012
Following is Austen's story, written by Austen.
I’ve spent my life playing soccer. I always figured if I died an untimely death it would be because of my rather extensive collection of concussions.
Soccer takes a toll on your body. If only you saw beneath my jersey, you’d know what I’m talking about. I’ve got horrific scars on both arms and discolored marks up and down my legs. I’ve learned how to take out my own stitches and can stay in an ice bath for 35 minutes before my lips turn blue. But Cancer was nothing like anything I had ever experienced and I’ve got the scars to prove it. My forearms are littered with track marks from countless IVs and blood tests. There’s a puckered wound in my lower back where they’ve drilled in my hip to get bone marrow samples, but the real prize is an 8 inch scar that runs down my stomach from my chest bone to my pelvis that’s a leftover from an exploratory surgery in which they removed a football-sized tumor from my abdomen.
Cancer has brought me to my knees. It has made me feel worse than I could ever imagine and has allowed me to see more beauty, truth, and triumph in a single day than many people experience in a lifetime. The question with chemo is what will the chemo kill first: the Cancer, or me? My exciting life has quickly become a nauseating routine of IV drips and doctors appointments. The sickness has been in the details, in the gruesome effects of the treatment. Cancer is a blurred sense of illness but chemo is an endless sequence of horrors until you begin to think that the cure is as bad or worse than the disease.
Click here to read and see more of Austen's Story
AWARDS
2018
Seattle Sounders FC
Community MVP Award
Seattle Reign FC
"Legends" Award
2016
Seattle Reign FC
"Legends" Award
Austen Everett
2017
Seattle Sounders FC
Golden Scarf Award
Austen Everett
2015
University of Miami
Butler Community Service Award
Austen Everett
The AEF Team
Committed to empowering kids battling cancer
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June Leahy
Executive Director
Nicole Paxton
Communications Director
Hanna Sanford
Program Director
Hayden Peck
Program Coordinator
Laurel Freeman
Development Coordinator
OUR PRODUCERS
AEF Producers assure a dynamic, inspiring, and empowering AEF team event experience for the captain and their family.
SEATTLE PRODUCERS
Kelsey Herstad
Hunter Kulik
Lanesha Reagan
Rebecca Reeves
Morgan Simkims
Isaac Shorack
Cecilia De La Cruiz
BAY AREA PRODUCERS
Audrey Hegardt
Manuel Lopez
Sylvee Walenczewski Proeh
Ashley Wilson
Brooke Yarrington
LOS ANGELES PRODUCERS
Briana daMota
Malloy Leahy
Amelia Tabullo
Natalie Moik
MIAMI
PRODUCERS
Matt Bernake
Joanna Greenberg
Natalie Marrero
Kylie Wang
OREGON
PRODUCERS
Luis Magallares
Matt Wright
MINNEAPOLIS PRODUCER
Ellen Jones
DENVER
PRODUCERS
Alyssa Lorenz
Maddie Schroeder
TEXAS PRODUCERS
Sammi Buchanan
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Kari Anderson
The Seattle Gym
Dorene Kriekenbeek-Davis
EVEN Hotel
June Leahy
Austen Everett Foundation
Tim Leahy
Benefit Auction Strategist
Kaylynn Kelley
Windermere
Gary Noren
Noren Development
Danielle Pavlovic
Progeny 3
David Vitale
Progeny 3
Lauren Wyckoff
Austen Everett Foundation
Tim Girvin
Girvin Strategic Branding & Design
Ross Jacobson
Williams Kastner
Peter Leahy MD
Stanford University
Kelly McNelis
Women For One
Karen Phelps Moyer
Eluna
Yom Senegor
Medaware Solutions
Beverly Yanez
Seattle Reign FC
GIRVIN | Strategic Branding & Design
Mary Cunningham | MC Designs
