Recognizing that community service helps promote responsibility and character in young people, TeamUp4Community continued in its partnership with Metrx and NBTY Helping Hands in the “Spring Into Action Sports Challenge,” an interactive contest that challenged our Long Island Youth Athletes to partake in community service this Spring season. This challenge encouraged community service among student athletes between the ages of 6 and 24. Three prizes totaling $5,000 in sports grants will be awarded in May 2014. “NBTY Helping Hands & Metrx are very proud to team up with the W20 Foundation in support of their Team Up 4 Community program. It’s an inspiring program that allows athletes to win in their local communities by taking action and volunteering to help those in need. “ Jim Flaherty Director NBTY Helping Hands

The interactive contest, which ran from April 1, 2014 to April 30, 2014, required participants to share a short video of their community service work or their team’s community service work that is posted on Team Up 4 Community’s Website. The top 10 videos with the highest number of votes was posted on the www.TeamUp4Community.org website for viewers to vote on. The voting took place from May 2 to May 4th, 2014. The winners were announced on Monday, May 5th.

The video with the most votes, receiving a $3,000 sports grant is Longwood High School Student Athletes for their participation in Read Across America ; the second-most voted video, receiving a $1,500 sports grant is Long Island Lutheran HIgh School Athletes for their work in feeding the hungry this Spring; and the third-most voted video, receiving a $500 sports grant is Brentwood High School Student Athletes for their volunteer work in cleaning up their community this Spring. TU4C is also very excited to present Brentwood’s Athletes for their participation in community service work through both challenges, the President’s Volunteer Service Award. The award, which recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and country, was granted to Brentwood Athletics by the Youth Service America (YSA) program on behalf of President Barack Obama. All three winners videos can be viewed at http://teamup4community.org/spring-video-challenge-2014-finalists

The “Spring Into Action Sports Challenge” successfully completed submissions totally 12,605 hours of community service work performed by Long Island Athletes between March 1, 2014 to April 30th, 2014. The value of their time served in the community is valued at over $91,386 given back in service.

This year Team Up 4 Community has hosted two Community Service Challenges sponsored by Metrx and NBTY Helping Hands. Through their support and generous financial backing, TU4C has recorded 125 community service projects completed by our L.I. Youth athletes
with close to 6,000 athletes participating in 32,202 hours of community service work ! This is valued at $233,464 given back in service to our L.I. communities this year.

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 will learn life skills that in turn increase their self-confidence, promote responsibility and 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. “We were hoping The Video Sports Challenges would go viral and quickly reach the thousands of our young Long Island athletes who can help make a difference. The contest’s viewing and voting components for friends and family will surely make the contests entertaining for all!”

Communities are the backbone of Long Island, and its neighborhoods, 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.

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Over 30 student-athletes from University of Hartford athletics teams and financial services professionals from MetLife, partnered together to head classrooms on Friday, May 2 at the Laurel School in Bloomfield. The two groups teamed up to provide financial education to students by delivering Junior Achievement curriculum.

Among those participating in Friday’s Junior Achievement (JA) in a Day program were student-athletes representing men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s tennis, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Following a pep rally style kick-off event, Hartford Hawks’ student-athletes taught students in kindergarten through fifth grade at the Laurel School.

An elementary school, the Laurel School in Bloomfield seeks to create a challenging learning environment that encourages high expectations for success through development-appropriate instruction that allows for individual differences and learning styles. Each student’s self-esteem is fostered by positive relationships with students and staff, and the K-2 school strives to have its parents, teachers and community members actively involved in the students’ learning.
JA in A Day is a one-day presentation of Junior Achievement’s programs and a terrific way for young students to experience the valuable lessons JA programs provide in a same-day series of five engaging, hands-on lessons. The University of Hartford has more than 300 student athletes competing in 18 Division 1 sports. It is anticipated that representatives of each of the school’s teams will participate in a local JA program at some point during the academic year.

“One of the unique things about the University of Hartford athletics family is our sense of community, not just within the athletic department, but on campus and in the surrounding towns,” said head women’s basketball coach Jennifer Rizzotti. “JA’s mission fits with what we do on a daily basis. As coaches, we work to prepare our student-athletes for the world beyond athletics. We thought it would be a good opportunity to give these young kids role models they can relate to and allow them to see who our kids are off the playing field. In addition, it gives our athletes the reciprocal opportunity to continue giving back.”

In the past year, over 90 of Hartford’s student-athletes have participated in JA, representing all 18 of the University’s Division I athletic teams. Last December, 50 student-athletes partnered with financial professionals from Deloitte, the Hartford office of global professional services organization, to provide financial education to students attending the Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School in Hartford.

The 2013-14 academic year is the first time that athletes across all sports have worked with JA in elementary school classrooms as a year-long community service initiative.

Source: http://www.hartfordhawks.com/news/2014/5/5/COMM_0505140012.aspx

“We are grateful that the employees of these outstanding financial services organizations and the student-athletes are committed to giving back to the community,” said Lou Golden, President of JA of Southwest New England. “The elementary school students get a glimpse of the importance of continuing their education, and the opportunities and career paths that can result.”

Baxter Springs Lions senior third baseman Derek Barnes said the community supports the high school baseball team so much that people often show up to watch practice.

After an EF-2 tornado hit the town and damaged about 100 homes and 12 businesses on Sunday night, Barnes and many of his teammates believed it was time to pay the community back.

Several members of the Baxter Springs baseball team gathered near Ninth and Cherokee streets in Baxter Springs on Tuesday to help with the clean-up effort. Members of the softball team, as well as students throughout the school district, also were spread throughout the town to aid the recovery.

“Whenever we’re on the baseball field, the whole town is out there to support us,” Barnes said. “So I mean we felt like it’s something we had to do to support them and help out any way we can. Being a tight-knit community with everybody knowing everybody, it’s good to come out and help them.

Source: http://m.joplinglobe.com/TJG/db_269416/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=zbjjs8WW

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Members of the Southern Connecticut State University women’s basketball, gymnastics and women’s lacrosse teams were among the Owls’ campus contingent that took part in Saturday’s American Heart Association Heart Walk at Savin Rock. Nearly 50 members of the university community were involved in the event, with some individuals serving as event volunteers and others as walkers.

This event is just one example of many community outreach events that SCSU student-athletes will take part in 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 more than 4,000 hours of their time to numerous outreach efforts, both on-campus and in Greater New Haven, during the 2013-14 academic year.

Source: http://www.southernctowls.com/news/2014/5/4/GEN_0504140401.aspx

BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU football and men’s golf teams and the cheerleading squad spent their afternoon on Tuesday by visiting with the students at local Gardere Community Christian School as they continue to mentor and serve as role models for the youth in Baton Rouge as part of their community service efforts.

All nine members of the LSU Men’s Golf team visited the students from 3-4:30 p.m. CT, including seniors Smylie Kaufman, a former member of the SEC Men’s Golf Community Service Team, and Landon Lyons; juniors Stewart Jolly, Myles Lewis, Ben Taylor and Curtis Thompson; sophomore Zach Wright and freshmen Brandon Pierce and Eric Ricard.

LSU’s football players mentoring the students included juniors Danielle Hunter and Jamie Keehn, sophomores Christian LaCouture and Duke Riley and redshirt freshman Hayden Rettig.

LSU’s student-athletes spoke to the kids about achieving their goals and staying positive as they go through school. The men’s golfers later taught the kids how to hold and swing a golf club, and then had a contest with the students to see who could hit a tennis ball the farthest.

“The golf team thoroughly enjoyed talking to and playing with the students at Gardere,” Kaufman said. “We were all extremely impressed with the students and their staff, and we all believe that this school is heading in the right direction.”

The football players organized various throwing and sprinting challenges for the kids to take part in during their visit.

“It was great getting out into the community to help children that look up to you so much,” Keehn said following the event. “It’s always enjoyable to give back and see children’s faces light up by our presence.”

Source: http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=34710&SPID=2705&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=209486477