An abundance of community generosity is sending a group of eight Central High School softball players and four adult chaperones to Washington, D.C., where they will be part of a Women’s History Month event at the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.

That’s double the players, and one extra chaperone, for a trip the school wasn’t sure it would be able to take after they accepted the invitation from the Vice President’s Office on March 20.

That invitation came roughly a week after Harris, in St. Paul, to deliver a speech from a local Planned Parenthood clinic, made a surprise visit to a softball team practice at Jimmy Lee Community Center on March 14.

After setting a fund-raising goal of $15,000 for the team’s four co-captains and three chaperones — athletics director Alicia Ekegren, head coach Haley McFarlane and assistant coach Shakia Wilkerson — the school’s Parent Advisory Committee raised nearly double that through a GoFundMe campaign and community outreach.

Now four additional softball players, and school principal Cherise Ayers, were scheduled to leave for Washington on Tuesday morning.

“We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and love we’ve received from the community,” Ayers said Monday.

A GoFundMe campaign set up by Central PAC co-chairs Sunny Kase and Anika Ward raised nearly $18,000 in 24 hours, including a donation of $6,500 from St. Paul Firefighters Local 21 and an anonymous donation of $2,500.

Additional gifts of $5,000 each from Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, the Mardag Foundation and F. R. Bigelow Foundations allowed the school to expand the traveling party and its itinerary.

The money will pay for airfare, hotels, meals and local transportation.

Now the traveling party also will visit the Smithsonian Institution, the National Spy Museum and the National Zoo. Before visiting Vice President Harris on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory Wednesday afternoon, they will get an East Wing tour of the White House, thanks in part to the assistance of Central graduate Rachel West, Special Assistant to President Biden for Labor and Workers.

“This experience is so much more than just a trip to Washington, D.C., it is essentially a big hug and vote of support from the community,” Ayers said.

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