Mimi Nartey’s Playing for Keeps Foundation brings sport and leadership activities to LA elementary girls
Former Ghana Women’s World Cup team member Dr. Mimi Nartey helped lead an International Day of the Girl celebration at Palms Elementary in Los Angeles, where more than 50 girls took part in soccer, creative-expression and leadership activities.
Summary
Los Angeles Sentinel reported on October 14, 2026, that Dr. Mimi Nartey, president of Playing for Keeps Foundation and a former member of Ghana’s Women’s World Cup team, helped lead an International Day of the Girl celebration held October 7 at Palms Elementary in Los Angeles. Playing for Keeps partnered with LA SCORES to bring more than 50 elementary school girls together with athletes, artists and community leaders for an afternoon built around sport, creativity and leadership. The participating students, described as LA SCORES Poet-Athletes, came from Palms Elementary, Stoner Avenue Elementary, Braddock Drive Elementary and Charnock Road Elementary. Playing for Keeps coordinated the event, arranged athlete participation and provided a temporary turf play space at a school where most outdoor play surfaces are asphalt. LA SCORES staff and guests led hands-on activities, with the afternoon also including remarks, photos, autographs and giveaways.
Why it matters
The practical value was access: the event gave girls from several Los Angeles elementary schools a structured, supervised setting for play, expression and leadership activities, plus a temporary turf surface in a place with mostly asphalt outdoor space. The article does not prove long-term outcomes, but it shows a concrete effort to connect underserved students with athletes, program staff and a higher-quality play environment.