By Alex Riley

Special contributor to SMUMustangs.com

DALLAS – From the opening moment, Sarai Monarrez Yesaki knew it was going to be an amazing day.
 
As 120 SMU student-athletes formed two lines and joined hands high in the air, the energy inside the Armstrong Fieldhouse was palpable. When the first child ran through the human tunnel, they were all smiles. So was the next one, and the next, and the approximately 100 others after that.
 
Saturday, January 18 was an event known as Powerful Play 2020. In conjunction with Move for Miles, a Dallas-based foundation that raises money for childhood cancer research, SMU's Student-Athlete Advisory Council set out brighten the day of children affected by cancer and help raise funding to find a cure. By any measure, both goals were accomplished.
 
"We get so focused on our routine because we are balancing a lot of things at once like practice, workouts, competition, all of that on top of school, that it's easy to lose perspective on why you started playing your sport in the first place," Monarrez Yesaki said. She's a senior on the SMU women's tennis team and president of SAAC. "Seeing all the kids doing these little skills as best they can, their thirst to learn something new, and getting carried away by how fun it was, it reminds you how fun it is for you as well."

The second-year event was a chance for children impacted by cancer to interact with other kids and college athletes in a fun environment. Stations were set up around the indoor practice facility where SMU athletes taught skills related to their sport.
 
Attendees were a mix of cancer patients, their siblings and other children from the community who wanted to come out and be supportive. As the day went on, it was impossible to tell who was grappling with a life-threatening illness and who wasn't.
 
"There's a lot of activities for cancer kids and their families that do single them out, but in this case they get to be in involved in something they don't normally get to be in. They don't get to be on club sports or things like that when they're in treatment. It's a huge confidence, sense of normalcy for them," Move for Miles co-founder Stephanie Daglewicz said. She and her husband, Jason, were athletes at SMU and have a son, Miles, who has battled cancer since he was one.

Following Powerful Play 2019, the SMU SAAC wanted to see if the 2020 event could have a bigger impact. They set a goal of raising $10,000 through an online donation portal. Small teams were formed in the community, with groups competing to see who could raise the most money.
 
About a week before the event, Monarrez Yesaki said the total had reached about $8,000. She anxiously kept tabs, watching it inch closer and closer to the goal. On Friday, it cleared the mark. And then it kept going.
 
By the time Saturday's event had wrapped up, more than $17,000 had been raised, all of which will be sent to Children's Health to help fund cancer research.
 
Announcing the final total to the crowd of kids, parents, athletes and community members at the Powerful Play event brought a huge cheer. Monarrez Yesaki had hoped she and her fellow Mustangs could make something special happen. They did, both on that day and for the future.

"To see how sports can bring people together, that's the one thing that keeps amazing me, and makes me so happy. I was really encouraged by how we proved that we can all have a positive impact, sometimes we just forget it," Monarrez Yesaki said. "It makes you feel empowered, but also a little bit compelled to do something more. You're like, 'I have a lot to give, so I better start giving.'"