SDH Sunday Read: Rally For The Brewers
- Jon Nelson
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Caroline Brewer’s favorite Atlanta United player was Brad Guzan...
The family has so many pictures of the two of them spending time with one another- from the visits to the training ground and so on- the jersey signings, the personal time, and the recognition from Brad and the other Atlanta United players the Brewers would meet.
The Brewers have been to Mercedes-Benz Stadium before to see home matches and they returned for the 2025 season for the midweek match against Orlando. They were in front of the 17’s for the comeback and everyone in their party had the smell of drinks that went skyward and came back to Earth at 90+5. Her brothers, Will and Jack, were honorary captains and were there with their parents, Jamie and Matthew.
Caroline, sadly, had a different view.
She was lost to her family and everyone in her orbit in December at the age of ten.
“She just had a joy for living that was unmatched,” Matthew says. “There were very few people that met Caroline that weren't changed for the better from meeting her. She was just a force of nature and just absolutely loved life and considering all that she had to go through, especially with the cancer diagnosis and everything that she endured over her 10 short years, she was just an incredible human being.”
“She definitely inspired me a lot,” Will tells me. “Usually, it's supposed to be: I inspire her to do stuff. But she made me a better person. She introduced me to so many different things. And it was just an honor to have her for that long and be her brother. She was just an absolute ball of fire that's just all the time going off everywhere.
“She just was always happy and joyful all the time. And so it just told me that, even though she's going through something that's so horrible and should never happen to anybody, it just gave me that like happiness knowing that she was happy all the time. And so it just helped me to be happy as well.”
Caroline was someone who, quite literally, rallied. If you ask the Brewers, the question is always there: How could someone so young be so happy and resonate with others as much as she did...? She did so with the identification as a “Rally Kid” through the family relationship walking with the Rally Foundation early on. Founder Dean Crowe and the Foundation reach out to families and ask what help they may need. It’s a difficult cold call to make at first. But it is one they have made for, almost, twenty years now.
Crowe was, initially, issued a challenge by a fellow baseball parent in Cobb County to fund the best childhood cancer programs for the families themselves to help navigate the day-to-day challenges that are there we may not necessarily see.
Families will introduce themselves or interview with the Rally Foundation as an entry point into the process of support. But, over time, social media and the overall growth of the foundation has added to their presence. Rally has funded more than $40 million in research in their history- a quarter of that has advanced into clinical trials. Since Rally has been advocating, the foundation has been able to have $317 million allocated for cancer treatment in children, adolescents and young adults. They deal directly with vendors to help in bill paying and, for every dollar that Rally takes in, 93 cents goes to support the mission.
“Caroline was, I mean, so adorable, full of so much life and energy,” Dean tells me. “When she walked in her room, literally, she just was like a ray of sunshine. So, once you met Caroline you just were kind of like sucked in. You were just like, 'OK, I just have to be around this kid' because you're so fun and cool and then their family is so great.
“So really through her being diagnosed with cancer, that's how we meet most of the cancer families. We have a ‘Rally Kid Coordinator’ who will meet with the families initially. From that meeting, you just get to know these families and they come in and steal your heart.”
“It was an honor to be her parent because she just truly embodied everything that was good in humanity and just anyone going through such an awful circumstance,” Matt continues. “She, truly, just showed that there was very little that could get her down. We joked that it all came from her mom. Her mom is an incredible human being and we always say that's where she got it from. But I will say: we were talking with Dean at the game last week about the fact that so many times these children that are going through this, the folks that are surrounding them can have a huge impact on how they how they react to their circumstances and their situations. Because I mean it, anyone would be the first to tell you that those of us that have gone through it... this is not a happy time. But to have the ability to look at it and say, ‘I'm going to make the best of the situation.’ That's what Caroline did. And we tried to, as parents, for Will and Jack and for Caroline, we tried to keep things as normal as we could.
“I think she saw the example that we always tried to set- which was we're going to keep, keep going ahead every day. And we were always very cognizant of the fact that every day we had with her was a gift. I think that sometimes one of the biggest things that we just kind of when you're healthy and you're not having to think about that day-to-day, it's really easy to just not think, hey, you know, today was very special because I spent it with you and, and spoke with you, told you I loved you, that kind of stuff. So that's one of the things that we always tried to do every day.”
“I feel like I was a little bit more open about how I was feeling,” Will admits. “But, there were some days where I was just like- I just want to be by myself a little bit and just think. But I was, most of the time, always open and honest about how I was feeling- especially to my dad. I spoke to my mom, even to Caroline sometimes, and even to Jack too.”
“Children dying of cancer is a huge job hazard of mine,” Dean admits matter-of-factly. “And I will tell you, every parent who loses their child, they kind of all have this same fear like that their child is not going to be remembered and that their child is going to be forgotten and people find it awkward to speak the child's name to share a memory and we tell everybody like please speak their name, please share a memory.”
And that’s where Atlanta United reached back out. They found out that Caroline had passed last year and wanted to do something for the family.
“It was just, I think, one of the most precious meaningful things that I have ever had a sports team do for one of our families and we have been so fortunate,” Dean continues. “They were honoring someone like their sister that passed away. They were remembering Caroline yet bringing so much joy to her brothers and to the family. And I mean it, it was so incredibly special.
“I think it was absolutely amazing. I mean... hats off to Atlanta United. From every person that we encountered, it was just friendly and positive. They asked, ‘What can we do to make this a better experience?’ And we have surprises for you.”
It included watching the match from the Gull Wing Club and Arthur Blank’s suite...
A lot of the time, siblings are left out of the process. But not in this case with Caroline’s brothers given the honorary captaincy and being present for the golden spike ceremony at the end of the match.
“Caroline spent almost more time with adults than she did with children because she was constantly in the hospital,” Matthew says. “One thing that those on the outside may not realize is the siblings have to grow up so fast and they have to see some really awful, ugly things. I mean, you know, everything from seeing the pain and the tears and the vomiting and just watching another. That's one of the reasons why we're so thankful for the Rally Foundation and the fact that they are actively fundraising to find a cure so that children don't have to go through these things day in and day out.”
On special nights- whatever the word “special” translates into- you wonder about presence, influence, and powers that are greater than anything we can feel. Something is “different”- and the aura has a different pressure attached to the events you’re a part of that night. Safe to say, Caroline’s presence was felt all night at Mercedes-Benz. Will felt her on every scoring chance and Matthew remembered what it was like to be in front of the 17’s.
“It was bittersweet being up on that stage,” he says. “But it was also comforting to see familiar faces from the supporter section and to see how just openly loving everyone was to us and welcoming Will and Jack back to the to that stage.
“You feel her presence and she loved United. She loved those guys so much. I mean, it was a very touching moment and we just felt completely honored and obviously very humbled to even be there. But to be up there at the end and to witness that was just right. Words don't do it justice.”
For the record, anyone can be a “Rally Kid.” Dean tells me “...anyone from age 0 to 99- if you fought childhood cancer and you beat it, you can be a rally kid. Or if you have a child that fought childhood cancer and didn't beat it, they still can be a rally kid. All you have to do is fight childhood cancer and you can be around like it and you're a rally kid for life and we love being able to do that.”
If you want to find out more about the Rally Foundation, you could go to rallyfoundation.org, send an e-mail to info@rallyfoundation.org or you could e-mail Amy Sansury, Rally Development Specialist, to amy@rallyfoundation.org and she oversees their volunteers...
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