Today is a special day in sports.

It's a day to celebrate the women who made an impact, and continue to make an impact, on the field and in board rooms, in sports.

It's National Girls & Women in Sports Day (NGWSD), a day that originated in 1987 when it was declared by then President Ronald Reagan. It was originally designated to honor late Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman and has since evolved to recognize all girls and women in sports in any fashion.

The Steelers are celebrating the day by the women in the organization doing their part to help out young female athletes.

The Steelers partnered with Operation Warm to package and distribute over 500 sports bras to Pittsburgh Public Schools Girls Flag Football team, as well as other sports programs in the schools, with 250 plus students receiving two bras each as part of the Fly:FWD program. Fly:FWD sports bras serve as a bridge, empowering girls to overcome obstacles and excel in sports with unwavering confidence and are committed to making a difference in the lives of young athletes, setting them on a path of empowerment and wellness.

"We are excited to serve and provide equipment to the girls in the Pittsburgh community in order to ensure that they have the right equipment they need in order to stay active, not only in girls flag football, or any women's sports in general, but even in a gym class," said Lindsay Grassia, Director of Partnerships for Operation Warm. "They need a sports bra in order to be comfortable, in order to increase their confidence and be able to participate.

"We know there are a lot of challenges girls are facing in youth sports. Girls are twice as likely as boys to drop out of sports in their middle school ages. If you layer on socioeconomic status, sometimes that number jumps up to about six times more likely than boys are to drop out of sports. There's a variety of issues and we can't solve all of them. But if we can provide and remove one barrier in terms of access to equipment and to ensure that they have the right equipment to stay active, that's really our mission moving forward."

The event was held on NGWSD to bring together women in sports to reach out and help young girls who are just getting their footing in sports.

"It's a really exciting opportunity," said Blayre Holmes-Davis, the Steelers Director of Community Relations. "For the past couple of years, we've been trying as a team to think of things that we can really throw our efforts behind. We've been able to visit some different schools and highlight young students who wrote books about being a female athlete and what that means playing in a male dominated sport and celebrate them. But this event is really an opportunity for all of us as a team and staff to come together and really specifically for the amazing women who work here in the organization to be able to recognize and celebrate that day. But then also how do we make sure that the young women in our community who play sports have all the resources that they need in order to excel and compete?

"One of the biggest things that we found out was a barrier to young women participating in sports is having access to equipment that includes sports bras. I'm really thankful to be able to partner with Operation Warm to work with them to provide sports bras.

"It's an amazing opportunity to not only be with all of our female colleagues to recognize that day, but also to just have an event to really get our hands and create something that's really going to be able to help further female athletes and specifically in girls flag football. We're really excited about it."

Members of the Steelers staff, along with representatives from the Pirates, Penguins, Riverhounds and Riveters, gathered at Acrisure Stadium for the distribution for flag football teams from Allderdice, Brashear, Carrick, Obama and Westinghouse high schools.

"It's really great to all work together," said Holmes-Davis. "We partner on a lot of different events together from back-to-school events, food distributions, and a lot of other celebrations that are happening in the city that are very similar. All of the sports teams have a way of recognizing the day, but specifically to take time out to work together for a volunteer opportunity and to have all the sports team represented, it's a really exciting day.

"I think it continues to show the City of Pittsburgh that not only do all the teams individually work to help uplift our community, but collectively we all truly believe in making sure that Pittsburgh and the students here have everything that they need."

Students from Pittsburgh Public Schools were on hand to receive the sports bras, and also to help package them for their fellow students.

"I think this is amazing," said Karen Arnold, the Director of Interscholastic Athletics for Pittsburgh Public Schools. "This was something that was brought to the forefront for me a couple of years ago in track. It has expanded into other sports to make sure that all of our girls have what they need to feel comfortable when they go out to play their sport and know the girls are taken care of and they are protected.

"And to have all the sports teams a part of this, especially since it's male driven sports except for the Riveters, it's amazing they're recognizing that our girls need the support, too. To come together as one full group to support our kids, especially in Pittsburgh Public School, is awesome."

The Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles collaborated to grow girls flag football in Pennsylvania and were instrumental in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) voting to sanction it as a high school sport beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

The PIAA required there be 100 teams playing the sport at the high school level in the state in order for the sport to be sanctioned, and thanks to the efforts of both professional football teams, as of the Spring of 2024 there were 101 teams playing girls flag football in Pennsylvania. The Steelers and Eagles collaborated over the past three girls flag football seasons to grow the sport through clinics, camps, hosting games, education, equipment distribution and more.

"As we have seen women's sports take off, especially with our Girls Flag Football program, we want to make sure we are supporting the programs that only we have there, but the other teams have too," said Holmes-Davis. "We want to make sure the young women feel confident when they're playing. We realize this is just something small, but it can go a long way in making sure that they feel comfortable and then also that they're able to excel in the sport that they're in."

The Steelers efforts started small with girls flag football with only six teams taking part the first season. Now, the number of teams sits at 36 in the Pittsburgh region and 100 plus in the state. Through sponsorship help from Nike with uniforms, to donations from the teams of equipment and more, the sport was able to grow by leaps and bounds.

The team has hosted a yearly Girls Flag Football Jamboree, Girls Flag Football Leagues, Girls Flag Football Championships and a uniform unveiling at Acrisure Stadium. And through the support of current and former Steelers players, the attention to the game has soared.

"We just want to show support to the girls, even providing a motivation card as well," said Holmes-Davis. "It's something to let them know keep going, we're proud of you. It also lets them know we recognize and see who they are, not only as individuals, but also as female athletes and we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to support them."