Thunder Thursdays: FUEL Girls in Sports Summit

On this week's Thunder Thursdays, we hear from OKC Thunder Director of Fan Engagement and Fuel co-founder Michelle Matthews on their Girls in Sports Summit happening on April 11th.

Studies show that middle school girls have a higher rate of dropouts compared to boys, so the program is meant to encourage girls to stay active and stay in school through collaboration and city-wide efforts.

"Fuel was actually founded through a few things, the OKC Youth Sports Coalition and the Thunder Women in Business Summit, Matthews said. "So it includes a couple of community partners such as Cleats for Kids and Riversport, as well as USA Softball and a few others."

The summit also partnered with the University of Central Oklahoma, along with Oklahoma City and Tulsa Public Schools to bring 150 middle school girls to participate.

"Sometimes it's a, you know, equipment barrier. Sometimes it's a representation barrier," Matthews said. "There's not a female coach or someone in their school that's leading these programs. And so these are all community people that are invested in trying to ensure that OKC doesn't fall into that statistic."