Penn State Altoona is among several conference schools recognized by the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference for extraordinary community service efforts.

During the 2013-14 academic year, student-athletes, coaches, and staff members from across the AMCC pitched in to help local, national, and international projects. The Conference lauded individual colleges by awarding gold, silver, and bronze statuses in three community service categories: One-Time Event, Ongoing Event, and Array of Events. Penn State Altoona was awarded with one gold, one silver, and one bronze for its work.

“It’s always nice to be able to give back to the community and help others wherever and whenever we can,” says Penn State Altoona junior Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) vice president and men’s basketball player Joel Redfoot. “It was a total team effort from all the student-athletes. We didn’t do it for the recognition, but rather to help others, which made it even greater for us.”

The Lions athletics department received a gold award in the One-Time Event category for its shoe collection in support of Soles4Souls, a global non-profit institution dedicated to fighting the perpetuation of poverty. The organization has donated more than 25 million shoes to over 100 countries worldwide. During a week in February, SAAC spearheaded a campus-wide effort to benefit a local Soles4Souls drive and rounded up 230 shoes for the cause.

For its continuing partnership with the Special Olympics on a local level, Penn State Altoona was awarded a silver in the Conference’s Ongoing Event category. From August to May, SAAC members, student-athletes, coaches, faculty, and athletic department staff donated time and effort to Special Olympics athletes from Blair, Bedford, Cambria, and Clearfield Counties. They regularly assisted the Special Olympics athletes in basketball, bocce, bowling, swimming, track & field, and volleyball practices. In April, Penn State Altoona held its third Student-Athlete vs. Staff/Faculty basketball game, which raised money for the local Special Olympians and provided the opportunity for the Olympians to play basketball in the Adler Gym in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

In the Array of Events category, Penn State Altoona received a bronze award for its work with Altoona Area School District’s Mountain Lion Backpack Program, which provides weekend “backpack” meals to local school children in need. Student-athletes, coaches, staff members, and club sports athletes worked at the Backpack Program’s headquarters to unload food trucks from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, organizing the food and helping create the backpacks. Volunteers also held three activities to support the program. In February, student-athletes gathered in the Adler Gym and created treat bags to be placed in the backpacks. In March and April, student-athletes collected donations totaling over $2,900 for the program. In April, SAAC sponsored the “Kick Out Hunger Kickball Tournament” in which the campus’ student-athletes and club sports athletes played kickball to raise over $130 for the Backpack Program.

“Our student-athletes, coaches, and staff are dedicated to making a difference in our community and have continued to find new ways to give back to these great organizations,” says Penn State Altoona SAAC adviser Billy Clapper. “These recognitions are just another way to bring awareness and support to all the great things that others in our community do.”

Source: http://www.altoona.psu.edu/now/news.php?value=4691

For a group of Swarthmore College student-athletes, Tuesday evenings have become an important campus and community engagement activity. Members of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) have hosted the Delaware County Special Olympics Track & Field team in the Lamb-Miller Field House each week for practices throughout the 2013-14 school year.

The practices include warm-up stretching and laps around Lamb-Miller Field House followed by working on throwing, jumping and running skills; at peak times there were as many as 40 Delaware County Special Olympic athletes in attendance. During the practices, our student-athletes provide mentorship and encouragement to the participants (and even enjoyed a few competitive races around the field house!). The partnership is designed to improve the lives of Special Olympics athletes through their involvement with Division III student-athletes and to foster a mutual learning experience between Division III student-athletes and Special Olympics athletes.

SAAC representatives Melissa O’Connor (softball), Lizzie Kolln (lacrosse) and Julia Murphy (soccer) have been active in recruiting Swarthmore students and student-athletes to volunteer each week and have coordinated weekly activities along with special programs. In addition to more than half of the athletic teams at Swarthmore volunteering throughout the year, other groups on campus reached out to assist, including the McCabe Society.

To read the full story please visit: http://www.swarthmoreathletics.com/news/2014/4/10/ATH_0410141148.aspx

On May 20, Long Island Lutheran, located in Brookville, NY, was honored at its annual Spring Sports Awards by Team Up 4 Community, an international community giveback project
of the W20 Foundation that was formed by former Islander Steve Webb in 2007. The Foundation focuses on building character among athletes through the promotion and collaboration of community service and social responsibility.

Throughout the school year, LuHi students and student athletes have participated in a large variety of service projects including; Habitat for Humanity Builds, Toys for Tots collections,
putting together Thanksgiving baskets, and our LuHi Meal Packing Event for which we were honored. On hand for the $1500 check presentation was Steve and Theresa Webb, founder and director of Team Up 4 Community and Jim Flaherty and Marialice Dunphy, NBTY Helping Hands, Vice President and Director. Mr. Webb took time to address student athletes and their families gathered for the awards ceremony to reinforce the importance of giving back to one’s community and congratulated the school for their second place finish in the Foundation’s Spring into Action Challenge.

This is the fourth year LuHi has hosted its Meal Packing Event and we were pleased to pack 316,224 meals. The completed meal packets were then distributed to Island Harvest, the News Release Freeport Emergency Food Pantry, New Ground and other local food pantries in need.

Additional meal packets were being shipped to the Andrew Grene School outside of Port au Prince, Haiti, an official feeding site that will prepare and serve the food to children in need.

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Update: 5/27/14

Our shipment of food from our Meal Packing Event has reached the Andrew Grene School in Haiti. Here are some photos, as well as, a message from the school’s Headmaster. Visit www.luhi.org Document Library for information about next year’s event!

“Hello,

The container arrived yesterday afternoon. The process ended up to 8 pm . Some students and other people come to help…Today it was with great joy that students took the lines to remove their food. I thank all those who labor for the accomplishment of this wonderful initiative : The Andrew Grene Foundation, Mano Amiga and your partners at LUHI – NY, & Lifeline.

The students of Andrew Grene High School now have the certainty that they receive a meal regularly coming to school.
Knowing the situation of misery of the people, what could be more motivating!?

“Yes, Hope starts When Hunger ends!”
I know that this work, it is a real challenge, But I hope that God will help you to have the necessary means to maintain this ideal.
Many thanks to you all.

Regards,
Headmaster Ricot”

PHILADELPHIA – After a semester full of spring matches and serving the community, Temple volleyball wrapped up the season by going back to Northern Children’s Services where the Owls had volunteered previously. The team had gone on a weeknight the first time, and they went back on a Friday night to have a different experience.

When the team went to Northern Children’s Services the first time, they tutored the young kids and worked on projects with them. For this visit, they went on a Friday night. After arriving, they were taken to the gym to teach the children basics about volleyball.

The Temple athletes started the session off with introductions and partnered with the boys and the girls to teach them the basics to volleyball. The athletes taught the kids how to pass, set, attack, and serve the ball. Some of the kids picked up the skills easily and started peppering with their partners. As the evening went on, more kids showed up for the session. When a large amount of kids arrived, the athletes were able to break into teams and play mini games. The teams played two mini games each, and the children had a lot of fun and were very competitive. At the end of the session, the Owls autographed a volleyball for the children and took pictures with everyone. It was a great night for all involved, and the children are looking forward to coming to Temple volleyball matches in the fall.

Kevin Weber, the Director of Northern Children’s Services, was extremely appreciative of the team’s commitment. Weber wrote a letter explaining more about the background of the program and about the impact of Temple Volleyball’s involvement.

From Kevin Weber…

Our volunteer program has extended to many colleges and universities over the past 10 years. We’ve been very fortunate to have been involved with schools such as Temple, LaSalle, Villanova, Penn, St. Joseph’s, Ursinus, Gwynedd Mercy, and Philadelphia University. Many students from these respective schools have also volunteered their time as tutors throughout the course of the entire academic year. Volunteer tutors play a tremendously important role in our program as children are facing an extremely critical time in their academic journey toward success or… failure. Many of the children who enter our program come to us because they are struggling both emotionally and psychologically at home and in the classroom. Some of the children become emotionally apprehensive in the classroom and are 1-2 grades behind in their reading and math levels and thus, find themselves continually behind their peers on the academic spectrum.

The children are also in great need of positive role models, and this is where the Temple Women’s Volleyball Team has helped us tremendously. Our job is to help and support each child through each step of their behavioral and academic journey with the hope of giving a child the opportunity to help themselves now and later in life. After spending 33 years in this business, I cannot neglect to mention the role that sports plays in guiding the personality of each of these children. The kids love sports of all kinds and we introduce the children to a bevy of athletic activities such as baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, handball, tennis and volleyball. The kids love the games but they are also influenced by the athletes. Just this past year, the children at NCS have had the opportunity to meet NY Knicks star, Carmello Anthony, Former Sixers, Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, Villanova Basketball point guard Dylan Ennis, Philadelphia University Mens and Women’s Coaches Herb Magee and Tom Shirley and a host of athlete’s from the Villanova Women’s basketball and lacrosse team, Gwynedd Mercy U. men’s and women’s basketball, lacrosse, baseball and tennis teams and, of course the Temple Volleyball Team.

Athletes are role models to many, many kids who aspire to be an athlete just like them one day. Our kids are no exception. Athletes are role models to these kids or at least, they are a positive and successful individuals that a child looks up to. Whenever we at NCS have the opportunity to introduce professional, college or high school athletes to our kids, we’re ecstatic to do so. The kids come to our program at a very critical time in their behavioral and academic lives. It’s so important for them to latch on to become the best students that they can be. We reinforce the need for them to develop disciplined homework and study habits and to use the tutors to overcome some of their academic difficulties in the classroom. This is sometimes easier said than done.

Because of the love of sports for many of our kids, getting a chance to meet the STUDENT/ATHLETE for them is a wonderful opportunity to meet young people, young men, young women who have sacrificed much and have reached goals that have put them in a position to be one of the best in their sport. To get there, academics also had to pay an important role in their lives. We let the kids know that the dream to play a sport in high school or even college is contingent upon doing well in school. It goes hand and hand. It’s the key that opens the lock for opportunity.

To meet the athletes from the Temple Volleyball team is like having that key handed to the kids. In two trips to the NCS campus, the team was involved in two aspects of the program, tutoring and teaching volleyball. They were outstanding in both. Not only were women great athletes but they were wonderful people too. As tutors, they were kind, patient and understanding of the academic abilities of each child and very helpful and supportive when a child asked for help. As “teachers of volleyball” they did a great job participating and encouraging our students to overcome their volleyball adversities to become team players, to never give up and to be examples of true sportsmanship to their fellow teammates. It is through this encouragement and support in recreation that our children learn to build up their own strengths and confidence in school and in our program.

The players made a huge difference because the kids get to socialize with students who are positive examples and role models to them. These fantastic players plant a seed and a positive memory in a child’s life that tells the child that he/she can make it and that they can succeed too. When you have good people around you, like this women’s volleyball team, it brings a warm feeling of hope to many of our kids and that is simply priceless. I just want to thank the coaches and the players of the Temple Volleyball team for coming out and thinking of us in such a special way and for truly making a difference in a child’s life. They did a fantastic job with the kids and from all of our staff and children, we are so very much appreciative to have had them join us for a night with the kids. Thank you Temple Volleyball so very, very much! I hope we can get a chance to see them play some time in the Fall!!

Source: http://www.owlsports.com/news/2014/5/5/WVB_0505143822.aspx

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Elizabeth Ayers, a coxswain on the Tar Heel rowing team who graduated from UNC earlier this month, topped off her collegiate career by earning Buckley Public Service Scholar distinction. She was part of the program’s 10th class, honored on May 9 at Memorial Hall, where all of the Buckley Public Service Scholars received a special cord to wear for commencement.

To earn the distinction, students must dedicate at last 300 hours to public service, maintain a 3.0 GPA, and complete four skills training sessions and one service-learning course. Ayers spent three years in the program and amassed more than 400 hours of service.

“I liked being a part of BPSS because it helped me become more involved on campus and in the Chapel Hill community,” Ayers said. “Since the program encourages public service I feel like all of the volunteer work I’ve done has made my college experience more meaningful and it’s definitely made a big impact on me.”

Ayers was among 251 members of the Class of 2014 who earned the honor.

The program, part of the Carolina Center for Public Service, supports and strengthens Carolina students’ commitment to service, connects them to others who care about similar issues and guides them through training and course work that make their service more effective.

For more information on the Buckley Public Service Scholars program, click http://www.goheels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&ATCLID=209506575