CHICAGO (WLS) — Hundreds of high school athletes took a break from the field on Saturday to hand out random acts of kindness on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

A box of donuts for hungry firefighters. A few bucks for unsuspecting customers at a coffee shop. Handed out water. A free train ticket for a commuter in need.

“Our goal is to make peoples’ day, to make their lives better,” said Tom Calderaro, a senior at Lockport Township High School.

On a typical Saturday, the high school soccer players would be competing against each other on the field. But in 90 minutes – the length of a soccer match – about 1,500 youth tried to spread as much kindness as they could.

“So we pooled together a few singles and he was able to get on the metro,” Nick Kowalczyk, a Lockport sophomore, said.

This annual morning of kindness is in its 13th year, made possibly by Buddy’s Helpers, a nonprofit that unites student athletes and encourages them to give back to the community.

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Garden City, N.Y. – After being challenged by Molloy College earlier last week, Adelphi University accepted the Lions’ #22PushUpChallenge request this past Friday out on Levermore Lawn on the Garden City Campus.

The cause of the latest viral video fad is an alarming trend among some of America’s heroes. 22 American veterans a day commit suicide in the United States due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The company known as Honor Courage Commitment, Inc. started a global movement called 22Kill several years ago to try and grab a foothold to help raise awareness and fight this disturbing statistic.

Members of the field hockey program, men’s basketball coaching staff, women’s basketball coaching staff, track and field team along with Senior Associate AD Kate Whalen came together this past Friday to complete the challenge and help spread awareness. Senior Rachel Colvin opened the video with a quick introduction while classmate Lena Pollich led the group during the exercise.

As a result, Adelphi now passes on the challenge to the Athletic Departments at The College of Saint Rose, Univeristy of New Haven and Southern New Hampshire University.

Helping to create a warm and welcoming environment for the first day of school, Three Village students and sisters Abigail Wiederman (Setauket sixth-grader), Sarah Wiederman (P.J. Gelinas JHS eighth-grader) and Hannah Wiederman (Ward Melville HS 10th-grader) volunteered their time to beautify a garden at the entrance to Setauket Elementary School.

The students, who each earned community service hours from the Girl Scouts of America in recognition of their efforts, weeded the bus circle gardens and planted seasonal flowers and decorative scarecrows. Sarah and Hannah are both working toward earning the Girl Scout Gold Award while Abigail is working on the Girl Scout Silver Award.

http://www.threevillagecsd.org/

here were more than 20 rest stops in this week’s Hotter N’ Hell 100 race on Aug 27, but the one that saw the most students was the rest stop in Burkburnett. This stop was managed by Leadership Wichita Falls, a non-profit organization which helps the community of Wichita Falls in everything possible.

Matthew Park, assistant vice president in student affairs, said, “We all love to come out and show all of the riders from all over the country the hospitality and financial relationship that is characteristic of the personality of Wichita Falls.”

Park said he, Leadership Wichita Falls, and the athletes love to help out with the race every year. The athletic teams have been doing this for four years, and, according to men’s soccer coach, Doug Elder, have loved it ever since. The athletes out at the stop were both of the school’s soccer teams in the morning, and the softball and cheer teams in the afternoon.

Elder said, “We look forward to it every year, and the race never disappoints,” Elder said. “We get out here at 8:30 a.m., cut up all of the fruit and pickles, make the Gatorade drinks, and help set up our tents.”
Elder said this year was pretty smooth compared to previous years, and the weather certainly didn’t hurt.

Elder said, “Generally around 11 a.m., we start to see 100 degree temperatures, but today we’re only looking at 85. It’s really nice.”
Park also mentioned the weather, saying it was definitely not Hotter ’N Hell.

“I heard all week that it was going to be nice, and it certainly has been. I don’t think there has been a cooler Hotter ‘N Hell than this one,” Park said.
The student athletes who worked the stop said they admired the racers work ethic, and since they experience the physical and mental workload that sports puts on their bodies, they felt moved to come out and help.

Jordan Speed, marketing junior and men’s soccer player said, “I love seeing all of these racers push themselves. I feel like I needed to come out here and help these people who are racing from the community of Wichita Falls since they come out and support us every week during our season.”
Alex Gerondale, finance freshman, also said she liked helping out the racers.

Gerondale said, “I love being able to help out bikers and help the community. It’s great to see how hard they work.”
Gerondale said she can’t wait to come back and help next year.

One thing student athletes, such as mathematics freshman Emily Fisher, liked was seeing all of the interesting bikes and bike gear.
Fisher said, “It’s really awesome. I think it looks cool, and it gives character to the people who are out racing today.”

While the stop did go well, there was one problem that a lot of students, such as Fisher, talked about. The tents were too far away from the street.
Fisher said, “I wish they would bring the tables closer to the street so it would be easier for the bikers to get the food and water. I’m sure they don’t care much for getting off of the trail, and having their momentum stalled.”

Elder said he understands the issue, but he said the reason for moving it so far back is because the field was uneven in front of it so the tents would fall.
“It is kind of rough over here. It’s a danger too because someone could sprain their ankle while walking to the tents. Hopefully we can either get a different location next year, or even out the field a little bit,” Elder said.

Despite the field issue, the stop was a success, and the athletes said they can’t wait to come out and support the racers again next year. An important name when it came to the rest stops was Dail Neely, director of student conduct, who helps coordinate all of the rest stops. He said he’s been doing it for several years now, but this year has been the easiest.

“There hasn’t really been any problems this year. We hadn’t had any issues setting things up, and there hasn’t been any injuries as of yet so we’re all good,” Neely said.
Neely said they told him the only way to leave this job is to move away or die so he will likely be in charge for a while. He said he hopes the weather will be as good as this year for several more years.

Source: http://thewichitan.com/burkburnett-rest-stop/

Westborough – At the fourth annual Rangers Give Back Day of Community Service Aug. 23, athlete volunteers from all of Westborough High School’s fall sports teams were assigned jobs throughout the town.

Athletes from soccer, cross country, football, field hockey, volleyball, cheerleading and boys’ hockey received bright orange t-shirts when they met in the morning at the lower lot of the high school. Then they were given their assignment and dispersed; some went with groups in cars while others took a bus.

“Some of the Rangers would be helping out with mulching, sorting literacy folders, having lunch with residents of the Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, mulching at [Annie E.] Fales Elementary School or Mill Pond, sorting student headphones, putting together first day packets and staff handbooks at [Elsie A.] Hastings and [J. Harding] Armstrong [schools], assembling flower vases and delivering them to the secretaries of each school and more,” said Olivia Natale, who has been leading this event.

Many local businesses, organizations and volunteers support the Westborough athletes throughout the year, and the event allows the athletes to show their gratitude.
Johanna DiCarlo, Westborough High School’s athletic director, said she could not be prouder of all of the Rangers athletes for their volunteer efforts.
“The event is the highlight of the year for me. Rangers Give Back is a way for our student athletes to say ‘thank you’ for all of the support the community provides them,” she said. “Olivia Natale and the student leaders do a tremendous job of organizing this event. It really is a special way to start off the season.”

Members of the boys’ cross country team were assigned a mulching and weeding at the Senior Center on Rogers Road.
“This day helps us to come together as a team. We can go out into the Westborough community and show everyone how much we care about their support. We want them to know that we are very grateful,” said senior Connor Schoen.

Natale, a senior and member of the cross country and indoor/outdoor track team, will be “passing the baton” to sophomore soccer player Bethany Woodcock to organize next year’s event.
“This has been such a great experience for me,” Natale said. “Our hope is for our volunteers to grow as teams through service and realize that this day is not just a way of improving a college transcript but, in fact, a way to show our gratitude and acknowledgement of the community’s tremendous impact on Rangers’ Athletics.”