Giving Back with the Arts

By Rachel Gaylor

Being a professional athlete means early morning practices, long strengthening sessions, and a commitment to an organization. The players work hard throughout the week and off-time rest is a luxury. However, rather than binge-watch or nap on the couch, two players are using their down time to help give back to Kansas City.

Desiree Scott is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and Katie Bowen is from Auckland, New Zealand, yet the two have been helping their adopted city by volunteering once a week at Silvercrest at Deer Creek Senior Living, a local retirement home.

Initially, Bowen and defenders Alex Arlitt and Brianne Reed went to just volunteer around the home, but after seeing a calendar of activities planned for the month, something clicked with them immediately: Drama Club.

“We knew it would be fun,” Bowen said.

Three months ago, Scott joined Bowen to help put on skits in her first experience working with elderly residents.

“It’s fun to switch it up,” Scott said. “It’s fun to see their humor, their banter, how into it they are and how excited they still are at that age to be involved and get involved in a program like drama club and just to stay active at an old age as well.”

The interactions between the residents are something that Bowen and Scott love to see and find humor in as well. With old age comes hearing loss, and Bowen said a lot of yelling goes on, but it’s all in good fun.

“Everyone’s just kinda yelling whatever they want,” she said. “There’s one lady who last week yelled ‘WHY ARE WE ALL YELLING?’ It’s just funny to see.”

Bowen and Scott have put on skits with the residents in the past, but this month, they’ve taken on a new challenge - putting on a murder-mystery play with the club.

“In the past we’ve done skits,” Bowen said, “but this one is an interactive play where you actually question the audience like ‘who do you think is the murderer’ and they actually vote and see who’s correct.”

“There’ll be a few one-liners, some props,” Scott added.

“Yeah, we’ve been working really hard,” Bowen said. “We’re practicing really hard right now.”

Though drama club is one of the many activities the home plans each week, others include bingo, brain games, etc., Bowen and Scott feel privileged to help out.

“They absolutely love it,” Bowen said. “For us it’s easy- it’s an hour out of the week. But to see how appreciative they are of that… it’s the least we could do. But they love it, they take it really seriously which makes it more fun for us.”

See Bowen and Scott take the field with their FC Kansas City teammates for the final home game this season. Single game tickets and 2024 Season Ticket deposits can be purchased here.

Player FeatureBryn Raschke