DinnerGrrls.org is a proud fan of PowerPlay NYC (whose founder, Ellen Markowitz, is a past DinnerGuest).  PowerPlay is

a 501(c)(3) dedicated to educating and empowering girls through sports, teaching life skills and building self-confidence and self-esteem for life! Our programs provide girls, ages 7-18, with the opportunity to feel connected, competent and confident, so they can make positive decisions about their lives and learn how to “live healthy.”

Amen to that!

Come join fellow DinnerGrrls, PowerPlay supporters and patrons, and some of the high school girls that PowerPlay empowers for a great night of Liberty basketball!

• New York Liberty is NYC’s fabu WNBA team – United We Play!
• They’re playing the Washington Mystics
• Thursday, July 30th, 2009; 7:30 p.m. tipoff
• Madison Square Garden – 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, Manhattan
• Because supporting professional women athletes and high school girls while meeting other women who believe “Authentic Career Nirvana Isn’t A Pipe Dream” is an awesome triple play!

Tix are $15 ($5 is tax-deductible) or $20 ($10 is tax-deductible) (whether you donate $5 or $10 is entirely up to you and your pocketbook!); a portion of the proceeds supports scholarships for PowerPlay’s SuperSTARS Summer Sports Leadership Academy:

a healthy living, career education and leadership development experience for selected New York City high school girls…  The intensive nature of the program creates a life-changing experience for the girls who attend. “My experience at PowerPlay has been fantastic. Every day we learn something new… My life has been completely changed by this experience, from the way I eat to the way I speak. My life will never be the same again,” said Christie R., who participated in the 2005 PowerPlay Summer Leadership Academy as a 17-year-old high school junior, returned as a junior counselor in 2006, and is a STARS Series assistant coach during the school year.

The Academy is offered free of charge to all participants because we want to ensure that the girls who need it most are able to participate.

Now, if only I’d made the pom squad as a bucktoothed seventh grader, I could do a little cheer.  Your imagination will have to make do.

You should totally buy your ticket before time runs out!  Ticket sales end on Wednesday, July 29th, at 4 p.m.

Your ticket will be available for pick up at the will call window at Madison Square Garden on Thursday the 30th under the name you provide when you buy your ticket.  Fellow DinnerGrrls can hover near the will call and look for a tall half-Asian woman that responds to the name “Anittah”; if you want to make it easy to identify one another, join me in embracing my inner grrly-grrl and rock some pink and purple (with apologies to the New York Liberty).  We’ll head up to our seats around 7:15 but stragglers can join us at any point during the game.

We’ll also get to meet participants of PowerPlay’s Summer Sports Leadership Academy; we’ll be able to identify these lovely ladies by finding all the high school superstars with glimmers of bright futures — made possible, in part, by generous women like you — twinkling in their eyes.

Get your ticket today and see you next Thursday.  Game on!