Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/27/17
From Press Release
The Katie Samson Foundation Lacrosse Festival will be celebrating its 17th year on April 29, 2017 at Radnor High. The Katie Samson Lacrosse Festival began in 2000 and has grown into the premier high school lacrosse event in the United States.
The 2017 festival again be the LARGEST single-day high school lacrosse festival in the country with 54 varsity teams (26 premier boys’ teams and 28 premier girls’ teams on six fields running simultaneously), and many other wheelchair events, activities vendors, 10,000+ fans, and 50+ major sponsors.
The Katie Samson Foundation gives back! Since 2000 over $1.8 million has been distributed to charities benefiting medical research and providing care for people with spinal cord injuries– research (43 percent), patient care (46 percent) and quality of life (11 percent).
The Cause:
The Katie Samson Foundation GIVES BACK! KSF raises money for research to identify a cure for spinal cord injuries and to optimize care and quality of life for spinal cord patients. The foundation also promotes social awareness as the lacrosse community comes together to support the festival. Through Katie’s courage and perseverance, her foundation has successfully raised funds to support spinal cord injury research and rehabilitation programs that provide much needed independence and quality of life improvements for those with spinal cord injuries.
Katie Samson – The Inspiration:
Katie Samson grew up in Wayne, Pennsylvania and attended Radnor High where she was a goalkeeper for the girls lacrosse team. Katie went on to study Art History at Middlebury College where she also played Division III lacrosse and helped her team capture a National Championship in 1999. The following winter Katie suffered a spinal cord injury while sledding and became a quadriplegic.
After months of rehabilitation and encouragement from family and friends, Katie went back to finish her degree and help coach her college team to two more National titles. In 2004, Katie moved to Arizona to pursue her graduate degree where she remained for 6 years. She moved back to the Philadelphia are in 2010 and is currently the Assistant Director of Museum Education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Katie still finds time to play wheelchair sports, such as rugby, tennis and cycling. Katie also enjoys storytelling as a creative art form and performs for different organizations in Philadelphia. As a peer mentor for people who have suffered spinal cord injury through Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, Katie encourages her mentees to seek out adaptive sports and therapeutic programs that have had such a positive effect on her life.
17th Annual Katie Samson Foundation (KSF) Festival schedule (all teams from PA unless noted)
At Radnor High School, Radnor, PA
2017 KSF Lacrosse Schedule of Games
Boys Games
9:00 AM
Great Valley HS v. Marple-Newtown HS on Prevost Field
Lower Merion HS v. Shipley School on Loop or Library Field
Upper Merion HS v. Archbishop Carroll HS on Creek Field
11:00 AM
Haverford School v. Hun School on Prevost Field
Downingtown West HS v. Germantown Academy on Loop or Library Field
Downingtown East HS v. Central Bucks West HS on Creek Field
1:00 PM
Garnet Valley HS v. Spring-Ford HS on Prevost Field
Harriton HS v. Pennridge HS on Loop or Library Field
Academy of the New Church v. Hill School on Creek Field
2:15 PM
Radnor HS v. v. William Penn Charter School on Encke Field
3:00 PM
Conestoga HS v. Malvern Prep on Prevost Field
Brunswick School-CT v. St. Augustine Prep-NJ on Loop or Library Field
Avon Grove HS v. St. Joseph’s Prep on Creek Field
Girls Games
9:00 AM
Owen J. Robert HS v. Agnes Irwin School on Encke Field
WC Henderson HS v. Baldwin School on Loop or Library Field
Strath Haven HS v. Germantown Academy on Rowland Field
10:45 AM
Abington HS v. William Penn Charter School on Encke Field
Harriton HS v. Unionville HS on Library Field
Great Valley HS v. Notre Dame Academy on Rowland Field
12:30 PM
Conestoga HS v. Bishop Shanahan High School on Encke Field
Garnet Valley HS v. Archbishop Carroll HS on Library Field
Friends’ Central School v. Merion Mercy on Rowland Field
2:15 PM
Lower Merion HS v. Hill School on Library Field
Boyertown HS v. Villa Maria Academy on Rowland Field
4:00 PM
Radnor HS v. Episcopal Academy on Encke Field
Downingtown West HS v. Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy on Rowland Field
Upper Dublin HS v. Shipley School on Library Field