Serving the community has always been a priority for Clemson student-athletes. In the 2014 fall semester, Clemson student athletes completed approximately 805 hours of service in the Clemson community and its surrounding areas. The Clemson Women’s Tennis team completed the most hours per student athlete while the Clemson Football team compiled 347.5 service hours, the most overall out of the 15 Clemson teams.

As the school year began, requests for service around our community came pouring in. In August, the Clemson women’s basketball team helped with freshman move-in day at Clemson House. They volunteered all morning, helping new Clemson students and their parents move their belongings into their dorm rooms.

In September, the entire Clemson football team volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and helped build a house in a local Anderson neighborhood. In the latter half of the month, student-athletes from numerous Olympic sports assisted with a tour of the Clemson football facilities for local students with special needs. Also, the women’s tennis team volunteered at Collin’s Children Home, helping to serve food to the children. To wrap up September, Abby Jones (Women’s Soccer) spoke at an FCA rally at Liberty High School and Bobby Belair (Men’s Soccer) spoke at Pendleton Elementary about the importance of good behavior in school.

In October, student-athletes from numerous sports spoke to middle school students in the West End Zone about the importance of education. At Homeland Park Primary School in Anderson, Taylor Watson (Football), Bradley Pinion (Football) and Manolo Sanchez (Men’s Soccer) participated in the school’s “Real Men Read” program, reading books to young male students. Towards the end of the month, Manolo Sanchez (Men’s Soccer) and Haleigh Hampton (Volleyball) each served as mentors at Duncan Chapel Elementary in their FAME and CHAMP mentoring programs. We had numerous schools request Be-A-Tiger assemblies in October and numerous student-athletes helped with those at many surrounding schools. Also in October, a handful of Clemson rowers volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and continued work on the house that Clemson football began work on in September.

In November, the entire Clemson women’s basketball team volunteered at Kids Stuff Academy, talking with the kids about education and behavior. In mid November, the entire Clemson baseball team visited a sick child in a Greenville Hospital, and encouraged him to stay positive. To wrap up our semester of service, both Clemson men’s and women’s basketball teams volunteered at the annual Tiger Wonderland event, in which all the players and coaches ate dinner with local kids and helped them open Christmas presents.

Finally, throughout the semester, our women’s tennis and men’s soccer teams served as pen pals in our Tiger Pals program. Each student-athlete had at least one local elementary school student in which they corresponded each week through letters emphasizing the importance of displaying the Be-A-Tiger character traits.

Overall, the fall 2014 semester was a success and we are very proud of the work our student-athletes are doing in the community!

To read more please visit: http://www.clemsontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=670620&SPID=110797&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=28500&ATCLID=209885510

H. Frank Carey High School girls basketball program dedicated its Feb. 6 game against Manhasset High School to Autism Awareness. The varsity and junior varsity players wore Autism awareness T-shirts as their warm up shirts at the game. They also invited students from the Promoting Academics through Life Skills program (PALS) and their families to attend. The PALS students were given orange pom-poms and enthusiastically cheered on their favorite girls basketball team. At half time, PALS students enjoyed a performance by the STEP team, before participating in a shoot around with the junior varsity girls team. Each PALS student was also given a miniature basketball as a souvenir. The PALS class had a bake sale organized and run by seniors Amy Biscardi, Carly Kaufman and Caitlin White to raise funds for Autism awareness. Students and faculty who could not attend the game were able to purchase and wear their Autism awareness T-shirt on the day of the game. Physical education teacher and Head Varsity Basketball Coach Theresa Schmidt made this event possible along with support from students Amy Biscardi, Carly Kaufman and Caitlin White.

Photo Captions:

1. Members of Carey’s girls basketball program are pictured with students from the school’s PALS class.

Photos courtesy of the Sewanhaka Central High School District.

East Quogue Elementary School students, faculty and staff once again raised money for the American Heart Association during the Central Avenue school’s annual “Hoops for Heart” event on Friday morning. Students participated in a variety of basketball shooting games, including a free-throw contest and a knock-out tournament, during their gym classes. Physical education teachers Danielle Davin and Matt Maloney have organized the fundraiser for the past five years, and students raise money ahead of time so they can participate in the contests. The district has raised more than $6,000 over the past two years, earning recognition from the American Heart Association as the top school donor in Suffolk County. Ms. Davin and Mr. Maloney hope to earn the honor again this year.

Ms. Davin stated: “The whole school gets to participate (we have about 470 kids in our school). Each grade level comes at the same time (all of the 6th graders come at the same time and so on). At the end of the day we get the whole school to come into the gym and the teachers do a knock out tournament. The kids go crazy for it! It’s a really fun day! We have been the top fundraising Hoops for Heart school the past 2 years.”

Information courtesy of East Quogue Physical Education Department

The Hampton Bays High School junior varsity and varsity cheerleading squads raised more than $5,700 for Epidermolysis Bullosa research at their 2015 Cheer for a Cure event on Feb. 7.

The annual event brought together 350 cheerleaders from 19 teams throughout Suffolk County, who all performed for a packed house in the Hampton Bays Middle School’s gymnasium.

“This was an amazing event that took a lot of hard work and time to organize. Great job and congrats,” said Drew Walker, director of health, physical education and athletics for the Hampton Bays School District.

Photo Caption: Over 350 cheerleaders helped to raise $5,719 for Epidermolysis Bullosa research at the annual Cheer for a Cure event at Hampton Bays Middle

Photo courtesy of the Hampton Bays School District

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Student-athletes from the Southern Connecticut State University gymnastics team traveled to the Clinton Avenue School in New Haven on Wednesday to continue their work in an interactive academic program with students at the school.

This program is just one example of many community outreach events that SCSU student-athletes will take part in during the 2014-15 academic year as part of the Tim Greer Insurance Agency Community Service Cup.

Initiated in September, 2008, the ‘Community Service Cup’ program provides a competitive format that allows student-athletes to gain an enriched experience through engagement with the on-campus and local communities by supporting ventures of traditional citizens, campus community members and peer students and student-athletes. SCSU student-athletes volunteered nearly 4,000 hours of their time to numerous outreach efforts, both on-campus and in Greater New Haven, during the 2013-14 academic year.

To learn more please visit: http://www.southernctowls.com/news/2015/2/4/GEN_0204154849.aspx