St. Charles to honor four with Harrison Lifetime Achievement Award

Nearly two decades ago, a group of St. Charles girls soccer players took advantage of some opportunities they were given, made the absolute most of their circumstances and achieved some great things because of it.

Many years removed from 1990, Maggie Miller is still in touch with many of those same characteristics, only this time she is the one helping create opportunities for others. She does this through Discover Hope Fund, nonprofit organization that operates in the microcredit field.

Miller works many months a year in Peru, where she dispenses loans to women in poverty to help them start businesses. The profits of their labor repay the loans and help the women move from poverty.

Athletes always talk about playing games one at a time. Miller now works one life at a time, and the victories are worth just as many high fives as all the trophies she won as a soccer player.

"I do think the meaning of life is in what we give," Miller said. "We come to the world with nothing and we leave with nothing. So the purpose is in giving."

You take your pick -- all-star athlete or as a worker helping change people's lives, Miller has more than earned her status for recognition with the Jodie Harrison Lifetime Achievement Award, which serves as the school's athletic hall of fame.

Richard Balla, Denny Dewitte and Sam Mele also will be inducted on Jan. 19 during the St. Charles North-St. Charles East girls and boys basketball games.

"My personal goal is to inspire personal greatness in other people -- that's my life goal," Miller said. "If I can do that every day by giving people power -- to smile, to feel good or feel listened to -- like (Harrison) was to me -- that's been a successful day."

In her playing days, Miller was as tough as they came. While she was definitely talented, she epitomized the attitude of a team that gave everything it had for 80 minutes every time it took the field.

And that mutually collective attitude of end-to-end intensity helped Miller and her teammates win the 1990 state girls soccer title -- at the time the first of the school's championship trophies. The Saints won again in 1992 in Miller's senior season.

From there, Miller went to James Madison, played soccer for four years and was every bit the standout she was in high school.

But there was always another side. Always a writer -- Miller's degree from James Madison is in journalism -- she always had ideas. And people like Jodie Harrison helped give an outlet for her thoughts.

"For me, it's really an honor -- a heartfelt one and a heartfull one as well, to be given this honor," Miller said. "I had the honor of knowing (Harrison) personally. He was a mentor and a guide to me. He made a commitment to listen to people. I remember him listening to me while we sat on the bleachers at St. Charles, and he listened to me as an adult, while I told him some ideas I had. He was there to instill light on young people. Receiving the award means a lot to me because of what he meant to me then and what he means to me now."

There are lessons from the sporting world that Miller carries with her every day, though as is often the case, winning two state titles is not what she brings up.

"I told (former St. Charles girls soccer coach Tim Dailey) that the smell of the grass on a soccer field brings me back to all those times," Miller said. "It was a huge part of shaping me as a person. I was part of a team and you learned to be generous and to work hard even when you were completely exhausted."

Miller has coached many different teams at either the youth level or in camps since she stopped playing. She steers clear of the teams that are star-studded.

"The ones I love working with the most are the ones that remind me of us," Miller said. "I love working with rusty little girls with big dreams."

Many of the Saints on the 1990 team had older brothers or sisters who grew up in St. Charles. Miller is the seventh of eight children, and she spent many hours cheering on Saints teams in the 1980s.

"I remember the highs and disappointments from watching Mike, Mark, Monica, Mindy -- who were all part of the early days of St. Charles soccer," Miller said. "We had great people like Mr. Dailey -- and (Harrison) allowed him to bring in Bret Hall to be a guide for us. There was a sense of pride and family. We had a sense of generosity and spirit and perseverance and humor. I thank my own family for those, but also the team, because we weren't an incredibly talented group of players."

Miller said those traits of generosity, perseverance and humor remain with her today as she works in Peru, or in Austin, Texas, where Discover Hope Fund's offices are located. Just like a coach who prepares a team for a match and then must stay on the sidelines while they perform, Miller creates opportunities -- but then allows things to take place without tremendous intervention.

"The goal is to create financial independence," Miller said. "The second part is to help them find spiritual abundance -- to give them an opportunity to lift themselves as people. We sit down, and we are quiet, and we let them tell us what they want to do. I can't empower anyone myself. But I can give them the opportunity to empower themselves."

The microcredit way of operating received much publicity in 2006 when Bangladesh native Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Price for his work with the Grameen Bank. Yunus' first loan was for $27. The Grameen Bank, still operating primarily with small loans, does billions of dollars of business a year.

Miller said the typical size of a Discover Hope loan is $100. But a lot can be done with that money in the life of an impoverished Peruvian woman.

"This brings the bank to the people," Miller said. "It's not a handout. These people have dignity and ownership. They get involved because it's their loan and their business and their family."

Miller acknowledged that it might be easy to put one's ego heavily into this. But where she takes pride is in seeing the results.

"I'm not tied to seeing how large Discover Hope becomes," Miller said. "At the end of the day, if we've created an opportunity for somebody new to create their personal power -- then I'm doing my job in this world and I'm in the perfect place."

With ideas like that, the Jodie Harrison Lifetime Achievement Award is also the perfect place for Maggie Miller.

• For more information on Discover Hope Fund, go to www.discoverhopefund.com.