BAYSIDE, N.Y. (Nov. 11, 2014) – This past weekend, a total of 30 LIU Post student-athletes participated in the East Coast Conference Community Clean-Up initiative at Crocheron Park in Queens.

Members of the Pioneers’ men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball and women’s tennis teams filled up over 100 tarps worth of leaves, and tossed them in a garbage truck.

“It was a great experience to give back to the community,” stated junior baseball player Steve Teitel (Merrick, N.Y.). “I am glad that we were able to offer our time and have the athletic department help out at this event,”

Junior women’s lacrosse student-athlete Emily Delaney (Long Valley, N.J.) commented with similar words. “It was an incredible experience to give back to the community. It was a fun event and a beautiful day out…I would definitely do it again.”.

“It was a great day for the LIU Post athletic family to get out and help a city park,” Head Baseball Coach Mike Gaffney (Westbury, N.Y.) said. “It brought us all together, not just to spend time with one another, but to follow a plan and get a job done.”

For just over an hour leading up to the University’s big hockey game against the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes, another team of Falcon student athletes set up shop just inside the doors of the ice arena.
The softball team battled a different sort of foe on Friday night. They were literally, as the name would suggest, “Falcons Fighting Hunger.”
All throughout this past month of November, various athletic programs at the University have been participating in the annual Falcons Fighting Hunger food drive.
The effort, which is largely organized by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee [SAAC], is used to collect both canned goods and monetary donations for the BG Christian Food Pantry.
“They service so many families,” said Marissa Tashenberg, a graduate assistant in student-athlete services and coordinator for the food drive.
In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, this time of year often has an increase of those in need, she said.
Carmen Young, a senior member of the swim and dive team, as well as president of SAAC, said seeing all the athletes interact with the community while giving back has been a great experience.
Young stressed just how important charitable efforts like this are and how these contributions from the University’s athletes allow those values to standout among the student population.
“They’re really taking the time out of their busy schedules to come out and give back to the community,” she said.
Tashenberg said she liked people
working together.
“I liked the merging of BG, the athletics and the community, all together,” she said. “And to be able to see we are one town and we’re working together for everything.”
The Falcons Fighting Hunger food drive not only brought together that city and campus-wide corporation for this singular good cause, but it also strengthened that sense of community through the positive interactions, they said.
“I think that’s something that the athletes understand,” Tashenberg said. “And our athletes enjoy doing it. Getting their face out there, thanking people that come watch them play every week and hearing, ‘Oh my gosh, we see them at our games.’”
But the volunteers and coordinators also said they recognize that not every at these sporting events will be carrying around a spare can of food.
“I think we’ve been getting a lot more monetary donations,” said Emily McClelland, a senior member of the softball team. “That’s usually how it is. Students don’t usually throw tons of cans in their pockets.”
Tashenberg said the problem is not everyone knows about the food drive.
“Not everyone’s going to know about the food drive and others aren’t going to want to carry around a bag of canned goods from their dorm to get into the stadium,” Tashenberg said. “But they are always extremely generous after that. Just any little thing they could give, I think they have tried.”
Even so, the drive has still remained successful.
“We’ve been doing it every year and I think every year it gets more and more successful,” Young said. “We bring in more money and more cans every year.”

Recognizing that community service helps promote social responsibility and character in young people,TeamUp4Community partnered with Met-RX and NBTY Helping Hands in the “Long Island $300K Sports Give Back Challenge” and the “Long Island Holiday Sports Heroes Video Challenge”, two interactive contests that are challenging our Long Island athletes to compete in service projects all year long. The “Long Island Sports $300K Give Back Photo Challenge” is a monthly challenge that encourages student athletes to share their community service projects with TeamUp4Community for a chance to receive prizes. Currently, student athletes have already put in a total amount of 11,555 hours totaling to a value of $83,774 of time served. The “Long Island Holiday Sports Heroes Video Challenge” is a video challenge created to inspire student athletes to serve their communities this Holiday Season with a chance to earn prizes totaling $5,000 in sports grants.

The “Long Island Sports Heroes Video Challenge” is an interactive contest which will run from November 15, 2014 to December 15, 2014 and will require participants to share a short video of their community service work or their team’s community service work. The video with the most votes will receive a $3,000 sports grant, second place will receive $1,500 sports grant, and third place will receive a $500 sports grant. The winning participants will be announced at the end of December 2014. For official contest rules go to www.TeamUp4Community.org.

Retired New York Islander Hockey Player Steve Webb created project Team Up 4 Community through his W20 Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to promoting social responsibility and community giveback through athletics. By highlighting different types of community service, young athletes can learn life skills that in turn increase their self-confidence, promote responsibility, independence and help build strong character. Community services performed by youth strengthens young peoples’ senses of civic engagement and community and helps them to achieve their educational, developmental and social goals.
“Similar to athletics volunteering helps build character and self-esteem in young people while simultaneously helping make a difference in the lives of others,” said Steve Webb, Team Up 4 Community Founder and President.
Communities are the backbone of Long Island, and its neighborhood, organizations, teams, schools and friends join together to collectively make a difference. TU4C builds and strengthens communities and individual characters by promoting social responsibility and community giveback.

About the W20 Foundation

The W20 Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was started in 2007 by retired NY Islander Steve Webb. It began with a focused local vision to assist young student ice hockey players with partial educational scholarships. These scholarships were designed to bring forth the presence of new possibilities for the Long Island youth hokey community. Since then, the increasing number of youth participation in organized sports throughout North America has reached over 60 Million. Taking this growing number into consideration, the foundation believes it is the right time for social responsibility to be introduced to our youth, which will create a very positive effect on our communities. With the mission to promote social responsibility and community giveback through athletics in North America, the W20 Foundation launched Team Up 4 Community, an international community giveback project, in 2012.

About the NBTY Helping Hands

NBTY Helping Hands is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization initiated by NBTY, INC., a leading manufacturer and distributor of nutritional supplements worldwide.
For many years, NBTY has shared its success by supporting the local community through charitable contributions to worthy causes. With the formation of NBTY Helping Hands, they hope to make an even greater impact by providing much-needed funds to more people than ever before. NBTY Helping Hands is the only charity to bear the NBTY name. It is run solely by their very own associates who volunteer their time to continue in the NBTY tradition of giving. The Executive committee of NBTY Helping Hands carefully reviews each potential contribution recipient, ensuring that your contributions are put to the best possible use. NBTY Helping Hands raises the majority of its funds through the NBTY Golf Outing Classic.

Their Hope is to help those less fortunate or may need financial assistance or may be suffering from illness, trauma, poverty, abuse or abandonment. Our dream is to help as many as possible.

New Haven, Conn. (WTNH) — Wearing team jerseys student athletes from Southern Connecticut State University are giving back to the community by lending a helping hand at the Connecticut Food Bank. The volunteers unloaded an 18-wheeler packed with turkeys.

Student Athlete Lindsey Luposello said, “we are defiantly going to help out, help move a lot of turkeys and bring them to people who need them.” Nancy Carrington, President & CEO of the Connecticut Food Bank added, “I think it is particularly important to have young people to come to volunteer as it will set a model for them a pattern that they can hopefully can carry on throughout their life.”

Stop & Shop is donating over 8,000 turkeys to food banks in the area. The supermarket is kicked off the Connecticut Food Bank’s ‘Thanksgiving for all’ campaign by donating 1,000 turkeys. Arlene Putterman with Stop & Shop said, “our promise to the community is about being a better neighbor. It is so important for us to give back especially at time like this as you know hunger never goes on holiday so it’s important to us as a supermarket to give to those in need.”

Nancy Carrington said, “the turkeys donated today will be going to a mixture of food pantries, that will be giving out bags of groceries for the holiday season and some to soup kitchens which will be preparing the hot meals for thanksgiving.” The coaches said giving back to the community is part of being a student athlete. Women’s head lacrosse coach, Maureen Spellman said, “you are not just recruited as an athlete or a student, you are a student athlete and that experience and that leadership and showing responsibility and showing that it’s just not about you and giving back to the community.”

Source: http://wtnh.com/2014/11/12/scsu-student-athletes-volunteer-at-local-food-bank/

Knowing that breast cancer is a disease that hits home for many of their peers, senior varsity volleyball players Emily Rubenbauer and Ally Dombroski decided to do something that would make a difference — raise money for breast cancer research.

The friends began working on their project at the start of the school year, and on Oct. 22, they held a successful volleyball tournament fundraiser that brought out students, teachers and administrators, all dressed in pink.

A total of 10 student teams and two administrator/teacher teams participated in the tournament, which required a $5 donation from every player. Each team had the opportunity to play two games, with three teams advancing to a final playoff round. In the end, a team made up of junior boys won.

The tournament, said the girls, raised more than $1,000, which is being donated to the SideOut Foundation, an organization that supports Stage 4 breast cancer research. Also being donated to the SideOut Foundation are funds raised through Dig Pink, a separate fundraiser in which the entire girls varsity volleyball team participated.

Emily and Ally said they now have their sights set on hosting another fundraiser in the spring, possibly a dodgeball tournament.

Courtesy of Port Jefferson Athletics Department