Sarah Williams: Carrying The Torch for the Olympics and for Foster Children

By carrying a torch, Sarah Williams hopes to shine a light on the problems faced by foster children.

It's been a four-year journey for the 2011 graduate from when she first read a book about a young foster boy in Alabama to running a leg of the Olympic Torch relay next month in England.

Williams is one of 21 Americans selected by the Coca-Cola Company to represent the United States in the relay leading up to the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London in late July.

The relay began in mid-May and the torch will be carried through 1,000 cities in the United Kingdom by 8,000 honorary runners. Williams will run her one-mile leg on July 9 in the town of Buckingham, an hour outside of Oxford.

"I can't even tell you how shocked I was to be selected. I thought they must have picked my name out of hat," said Williams.

Actually, the 19-year-old student at Scripps College in Southern California was selected for her volunteer work and for a project she started to provide blankets for foster children.

That effort began in 2008 when, as a freshman, Williams was reading the book "Hope's Boy" by Andrew Bridge. One section in particular struck her. It was about a 13-year-old boy in a cold basement in an Alabama detention center who was denied a blanket by a warden.

"I was so outraged and upset by this story that I had to put down the book," Williams wrote in an essay she submitted to Coca-Cola for the torch relay (you can read the entire essay in the pdf attached to this story).

The story made Williams think of the fleece blankets her volleyball team had made for themselves. So, she set an initial goal of having 800 Pleasanton students stitch together one blanket each to be donated to a foster child.

She received $3,000 in start-up money from the local Lions Club and Rotary as well as merchandise donated by local businesses.

With the help of the school's football team, she brought 2,000 yards of fleece into the gym and got volunteers from all over the Tri-Valley to sew the blankets. (the entire story of the campaign can be found in the essay pdf).

In fall 2008, the group surpassed its goal of 800 blankets. Williams then learned from a tree trimmer at her house about a Christmas program from the organization Foster A Dream. Williams and her group donated 1,500 blankets at that event.

From there, Williams created a campaign she called "A Blanket of Their Own." Part of that effort is the Legacy Kits, where you stitch together a blanket, then restock the kit and give it to someone else.

Williams formed a non-profit organization, Creative Kindness, to help oversee the program. Her group has given away more than 3,500 blankets so far. Williams also estimates her efforts have spawned the creation and donation of more than 20,000 blankets nationwide.

"This project really found me. It quickly became larger than I had ever  imagined," she said.

When Coca-Cola announced it was forming a torch relay team and would be selecting individuals based on their community work, several people urged Williams to apply. She was hesitant.

"I thought there was no way out of the entire United States, a little girl from Pleasanton would be picked," she said.

Her father was undeterred. He nominated her.

Then, in March, Williams received an email and a package informing her she had been named to the relay team along with the likes of former Olympians Michelle Kwan and Summer Sanders.

"It was very humbling," Williams said.

The teen leaves for England on July 6 with her father. She's still finishing her semester at Scripps but hopes to get some running in between now and her relay leg.

"I am so looking forward to this once in a lifetime experience. I never thought I'd have this opportunity," Williams said.

She also hopes her torch run will shine a spotlight on the plight of foster children.

"I hope this gets them the recognition they deserve," said Williams. "A blanket represents warmth and security and foster kids just don't have that."