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Miami Palmetto High School incoming senior Emma Weinberg is a member of the Palmetto Girl’s Lacrosse team that made school history.
“We were the first ever team to win our district championship,” she says. “We ended up playing Stoneman Douglas and lost in the Regional quarterfinals. But we shocked a lot of people.”
She was selected two years in a row as the Miami Herald’s County Player of the Year for lacrosse. She was also named to the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade First Team in lacrosse the past two years.
Lacrosse is her second sport. She grew up playing soccer.
She was named to the Miami Herald’s First Team All-County team two years in a row. She not only plays high school lacrosse and soccer, but she also plays club lacrosse and club soccer.
Although she jokes her life is just studying and playing sports, she also has a strong commitment to community service. Last summer, she participated in a Blue Missions trip to the Dominican Republic, building latrines.
“I was there for a week,” she says. “We had a daily routine of waking up and we built about four latrines a day. We helped build about 21 latrines.”
While there, the group of about 15 teens camped out in a small school.
“We showed up in the backyard of people’s houses,” she says. “We built them (the latrines) ourselves in the backyard. I learned construction skills.”
Weinberg says she heard about Blue Missions on social media and decided to go.
“I love helping people,” she says. “I was not warned how physically demanding it was. It was the best experience of my life.”
She and her friends who went on the mission still talk about what a great experience it was and how happy they were.
Before she went on the mission, she created a community service project called Good Will Punting. About two months prior, she contacted local sports clubs and went on group chats to collect gently used soccer equipment, practice gear and soccer balls. She set out boxes for people to drop off the equipment and she made arrangements to pick up the donations.
“I was only allowed to bring one duffle bag,” she says. “I had to fit in as many flat balls as I could.”
She was able to take about a dozen soccer balls, cones and a few lacrosse sticks.
“I’m sure they are playing with them to this day,” she says.
She not only donated sports equipment, but also just about everything she brought with her. On the way over, her bag was overweight. On the flight home, the bag was empty. She even left behind her shoes.
This year, she again collected used sports equipment, but they were earmarked for Venezuela. She chose Venezuela because she has family there. And she knows someone from the sports club that will keep her informed about the donation.
Her summer is busy playing lacrosse for the USA Lacrosse Southern Florida National team.
She played a tournament in North Carolina with that team, and she also plays on the Florida Prime lacrosse team which was playing in several tournaments this summer.
In the meantime, she’s in the process of communicating with coaches about the possibility of playing lacrosse in college.
“It was hard to make the decision about which sport I like more, but I believe I can go further in lacrosse,” she says.
Currently, she’s considering Florida, Florida State, and the University of South Florida for college. She’s open-minded about going out of state to study Business.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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