The Central Area Youth Association was formed in the 1950s to provide youth football programs in Seattle’s Central Area. In 1964, CAYA expanded its programs to include education, social development, and additional sports programs for both minority and white youth.
One spring evening, sixteen girls from the CAYA track team left for an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) invitational track meet in Soap Lake, WA. They had trained for the past few months under volunteer coaches on a borrowed athletic field and with borrowed equipment. The 10- to 17-year-olds would be competing against girls from Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Canada. Here, the girls gather with their luggage outside a bus recently donated by the Pacific Car and Foundry Company (now PACCAR). Another volunteer, bus driver Clarence Oliphant, drove them to the meet.
By age group the girls are: 10 and 11 – Minnie and Nora Hooks, Lynne Oliphant, and Regina Smith; 12 and 13 – Marlo Campbell, Toni Harrell, Romana Jones, Andy Krumeck, Leila Martinez, and Lauren Williams; and 14 through 17 – Becky Foland, Bobbie Gibson, Lauren Oliphant, Delores, and Paris Smith.
Caption information source: “Bus for CAYA”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 2, 1968, page 5. Caption information source: “Girls Leap at Track Meet”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 6, 1968, page 25. Caption information source: “Our Stories: Central Area Youth Association: www.seattle.gov/planning-and-community-development/our-stories. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
