Issue date: 4/7/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ashley Hess Stephanie Bruce '04 runs with the ball at one of the women's rugby team's games in Kampala, Uganda over spring break.

Over spring break, the women's rugby team made history in Uganda, becoming not only the first non-African women's team to play in East Africa, but also the only team to score points against the best club in the country. During its 13-day expedition to Kampala, Uganda, the team won five out of eight matches against teams from Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. Off the pitch, the team worked to promote women's rugby in Uganda and foster international understanding.

The inspiration for the trip came from captain Jennifer Hustwitt '07, who spent time in Uganda over the past two summers, most recently through Brown's Royce Fellowship program doing research about access to secondary school education.

Last summer, she attended a game that paired a Ugandan women's rugby team against a team from Kenya, and "it was the most inspirational game I've ever seen," she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "It was then that I decided I wanted my team from Brown to experience that."

The team started planning fundraising in October and projected it would cost over $120,000 to cover all expenses for the trip's 42 participants, with airfare alone making up approximately $50,000 of that figure, according to Kalie Gold '08, the treasurer for the trip.

To tackle this financial challenge, the team sponsored a raffle using donated prizes - including a trip to London, a laptop, an iPod Shuffle and weekends in vacation cottages. Each athlete was expected to sell 110 tickets at a price of $10 each as a personal contribution. One player, who also works at Miko Exoticwear, did not reach her goal but made up the difference by selling 40 vibrators donated by her employer. She raised approximately $1,200, though her tactic was independent of the team's effort, Gold said.

During the winter months, the team received financial packages from the Undergraduate Finance Board, Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene and the Office of the President. Families, anonymous donors and philanthropic organizations poured thousands of dollars into the team's collection. During a last-minute push in February, players sold reduced-price raffle tickets in dorms and even contributed out of their own bank accounts, raising $10,000 in less than a week and pushing the team's total to around $95,000.

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