Jennifer Medaglia, a board member and team captain at Stonewall Sports, emphasizes the importance of fostering inclusion and upholding the organization’s core mission. As someone deeply involved in multiple facets of the organization, Jennifer shared her responsibilities, including promoting diversity and encouraging members to proudly display their pronouns on their shirts. She spoke about Stonewall’s future plans, particularly the focus on increasing diversity and supporting underrepresented groups such as transgender and non-binary individuals. For those hesitant to join, Jennifers advice was simple: get involved, meet the community, and do not hesitate to reach out for a personal introduction.
Do you have any specific responsibilities or jobs as a member of the board or being a higher-up in this organization?
I think for me it’s it’s harder to pin on that because I do have my hand in a lot of things but I think the biggest responsibility for now being a board member is putting on that board shirt when I step out is to kind of uphold like the mission of stonewall to be kind to people to be inclusive of people to make sure our members are you know putting their names on their shirts. We have just changed this patch this used to be a big white patch and if they would we would ask you to put your name and your pronouns. I borrowed a big PowerPoint of why pronouns are important so I think it’s just that’s probably the biggest responsibility I mean yes we show up at the meeting and that kind of stuff but I think it’s just kind of agreeing to do what you say you’re gonna do but also being willing to help anyone else.
In what ways do you think that Stonewall can continue to grow and how will it continue to impact the queer community of Philadelphia?
I think with the five-year plan we are really looking to increase our diversity. We want to be a more welcoming place for the underrepresented communities, so we’re doing this to get our you know trans and non-binary folks a place. We are working very hard to try to find our place to sponsor and to support Philly Black Pride you know we really want to try to cater to and grow the areas where we haven’t done before. I think we’re trending you know we’re trending in that way so I’m very hopeful that we will continue to offer new sports like a pickle-ball mini-season which is something that we’ve never done before.
What would you say to someone who is nervous about joining a team or becoming a part of Stonewall? What would you say to encourage them?
I think I would just share my experiences with them like I came in not really knowing anyone and I now know everyone, literally everyone. I would just say come to one of our events, come and watch some of the games, feel the vibes, contact me. My roots in the board started on the diversity committee so I still hold tight to that even though I am not on the board. Inclusion and diversity are so important to me that if anybody was like “I am nervous” I would tell them to contact me and I will bring them in and introduce them to people. I would say let’s play around with these sports and see what you might like!
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