For Henrico's Smith, ESPY Award resulted from efforts to 'See It, Be It'

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student and Henrico citizen Hannah Smith had the opportunity of a lifetime last month when she was named a winner of the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award at the 2024 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.

Smith, a communication major, was recognized for her efforts to create opportunities for athletes with disabilities in the Richmond region and beyond. She received her award July 11 and was one of three winners recognized on stage by tennis icon Serena Williams, who hosted the annual ESPN awards show.

Smith said she was shocked and grateful when she received the award, that she was so excited to meet everyone at the red carpet, but that the most important thing was to meet her role models – other people with disabilities who she said "have paved the way for me to even get an award at the ESPYs."

Smith credited her mother with helping to inspire some of her efforts.

"My mom always told me – if you see a need and have the means, fill it," Smith said. "There was a need [for growth of accessible opportunities] on the East Coast."

Drawing on her own experience playing youth wheelchair basketball, Smith teamed with Sportable, a Richmond-based organization that creates sports and recreational opportunities for individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments, to launch wheelchair basketball camps and clinics and an adult women's wheelchair basketball team.

She recalled playing in her first national wheelchair basketball tournament in Louisville, Kentucky when she was 13 years old and feeling immediate acceptance.

"It was a giant building [with] 12 basketball courts, and there were more people with disabilities or using mobility aids than people who weren't," Smith said. "For the first time in my life, for the entire week, no one asked me 'what's wrong with you?' or 'what's your disability?' or 'why are you in a wheelchair'? They looked at me as competition, not as different. That meant a lot to me."

In 2023, she started the "See It, Be It" social media campaign, which highlights people with disabilities succeeding in sports, careers, and everyday adventures to inspire youth with disabilities and those with new injuries or diagnoses to pursue their dreams.

Smith attended wheelchair basketball camps at four different colleges, including UW-Whitewater. She was impressed by the hospitality and care shown by the coaching staff, which at the time included head women's coach Christina Schwab and head men's coach Jeremy "Opie" Lade, as well as the other camp coaches, including Warhawk alum Lindsay Zurbrugg, a member of the Team USA women's wheelchair basketball team playing for Schwab at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

She was impressed by the community's support of the wheelchair basketball programs as well and decided to enroll at the university.

Since her arrival on campus, Smith has been a member of UW-Whitewater's Campus Crusade for Christ and Delight Ministries chapters. She was a member of the Warhawk women's wheelchair basketball team from 2021-23, earning National Wheelchair Basketball Association All-Rookie Team accolades as a freshman and Academic All-America honors as a sophomore, and was a peer mentor with the First Year Experience office in fall 2023. She also has worked with students in the Pathways for Success and LIFE programs on campus.

This fall, Smith plans to work with the American Sign Language Club to improve her communication skills with those who are deaf and hard of hearing. She is on track to graduate this December with a B.A. in communication and a minor in special education and a certificate in event planning and promotion.

After receiving her degree, Smith plans to return to the Richmond region to seek a job incorporating communication and her desire to work with people with disabilities.

During the next year, Smith will engage in the Sports Humanitarian leadership program with current and past winners of the award with the goal of raising awareness and support for her work in accessibility.