Originally created in 2008, the “Leaf Relief” program was designed to unify the entire Goshen College Athletic Department – more than 300 student-athletes, coaches, and staff – to lead an effort to serve others in the spirit of Goshen College and its core values, which include servant leadership. It gives student-athletes a chance to make a difference in tangible ways and “give back” to the community.

The three main focuses of the project involve community service, raising awareness for worthy causes, and raising funds for humanitarian efforts. Over the past six years, thousands of dollars have been raised for charities and teams have done projects in multiple states as well as sent funds and supplies to multiple countries. Here is a look at some of the most recent projects.

Lymphoma Awareness Night
The Maple Leafs held a special “Stand Up To Cancer” awareness night at a men’s basketball game, raising awareness and funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They also pulled off an emotional win over Taylor with many in attendance “standing up” for men’s basketball head coach Neal Young, who is currently undergoing treatment for T-cell lymphoma.

Feed My Starving Children
The baseball team worked with Feed My Starving Children, an organization that sends food to nearly 70 countries worldwide. They served at a MobilePack location in Nappanee, putting together meals. “This was a great opportunity for our guys to contribute to something so much bigger than themselves and they greatly enjoyed the experience,” head coach Alex Childers said.

Greencroft Christmas
The women’s basketball team hosted a Holiday party for residents at Greencroft Retirement Community. They decorated cookies, participated in Christmas themed games, and sang Christmas carols. “Service work is so important because it’s out way of giving back to a community that has given so much to us,” sophomore Liz Tecca (Parchment, Mich.) said. “We are beyond blessed in our lives at Goshen College and getting the opportunity to spend some time with the people at Greencroft allowed us to show our appreciation.”

Reading in Schools
Student-athletes from multiple sports (soccer, tennis, volleyball and basketball) were part of “Reading Day” at Concord Southside Elementary School. They read books to dozens of children and also had a chance to play their respective sports with them. Several student-athletes also took part in “Real Men Read,” a similar program in the Goshen schools.

Goshen Schools Health Day
Led by student-athletes, a group teamed with the GC Kinesiology Department to put on a health day at Goshen Community Schools. The group educated Goshen families on wellness, created opportunities to increase fitness, increased awareness of community partners and resources, and led education efforts on healthy nutrition opportunities in family life.

Cross Country Service Days
While teams prepared for their years, the cross country team spent several days of their pre-season training doing service. Among their projects, they helped out around campus pulling weeds and clearing invasive species and worked with The Window packaging supplies for those in need.

Free Basketball Clinics
During the preseason, the Maple Leaf men’s basketball team performed free basketball clinics at Prairie View and Chandler Elementary School.

Check out some pictures from Leaf Relief projects over the last few years.

Source: http://www.goleafs.net/article/11081.php

Flushing, N.Y. – NYC Parks & Recreation recently hosted the National Girls & Women in Sports Day 2014 event at the Al Oerter Recreation Center and the Queens College women’s soccer team attended to help out and promote the cause.

The day-long event featured sports clinics, fitness classes, prizes, games and guest speakers. Many young girls from the local metropolitan area attended the event with their parent to join in the festivities. For its part, the QC soccer team assisted with the event, worked with the children and passed along a few tips, as they introduced them to soccer, played games, and had fun with all the young girls.

It was a rewarding time for the Knights as Itzel Guzman reflected, “It was a great experience being able to interact with girls that enjoy soccer at a young age.” Her teammate, Nicolette Scrozzo, added, “Being with the kids, teaching and playing the sport we all love was great. I look forward to returning next year.”

Head Coach Carl Christian summed up the event best when he said, “This was a great opportunity for our team to give back to the local community and share their passion with the young girls. It was a great way for them to serve as positive role models for these aspiring athletes.”

The Queens College women’s soccer team finished the 2013 season with an overall record of 11-5-1 and advanced to the East Coast Conference playoffs.

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Mar. 26, 2014) – On March 21 and 22, the East Coast Conference held its sixth annual Experience in Community and Character Leadership Workshop at Molloy College. Over 40 East Coast Conference student-athletes from all 11 member institutions participated in the program.

“This was our sixth annual ECC Leadership event and I continue to see each year how we help with the growth of the young men and women who participate,” said ECC Commissioner, Dr. Robert Dranoff. ” Our philosophy is to try to provide some important information in a fun setting, one that allows student-athletes from all around our conference to build relationships, interact, and accept new ideas and to have a chance to give back and help others.”

The weekend kicked-off with a leadership style assessment run by Melissa Perry, Associate Director of Athletics at NYIT. The session gave the student-athletes a chance to determine their own leadership styles using a DiSC assessment. DiSC stands for four behavioral tendencies: D – Dominance; i – Influence; S – Steadiness; C – Conscientiousness.

A trip to St. Martin de Porres Marianist School in Uniondale, N.Y. followed. The student-athletes spoke to the third, fourth, and fifth graders about the importance of teamwork and fitness. Then for over an hour, the ECC student-athletes led the children in activities and games that focused on working together as a team to accomplish a goal.

After returning from the elementary school, the student-athletes were given a presentation titled “What Kind of Leader are You,” by Bob Wolf of HOPE (Helping Other People Excel). Wolf, an experienced sales trainer, motivational speaker, and sales & marketing executive, spoke about four skills every student needs. Those included interpersonal, communication, presentation, and selling skills. Wolf also stressed that, “becoming an effective leader is a life-long process which involves meeting, communicating with, earning support from and working effectively with people.”

As the student-athletes ate dinner, they were treated to another guest-speaker, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation at NYIT, Clyde Doughty, Jr. Among the topics Doughty discussed were the things one learns as a student-athlete are transferrable to the work world and that student-athletes still need to work hard to show future employers how they stand out.

Saturday morning began with a presentation from Steve Webb, founder of the Team Up 4 Community organization. Webb, a former New York Islander, spoke about the difference he feels student-athletes can make in their local communities.

Two breakout sessions followed with the first featuring, Allison Halbig, a former NYIT student-athlete and now a Sale Team Manager at Sports Authority, discussing the transition from college to the professional world and the relevant skills learned as a student-athlete.

The student-athletes learned how to sell themselves and help take charge of their own lives in the other breakout session run by former NCAA student-athlete, John Dano.

The leadership sessions wrapped up with a thought provoking diversity program with Dr. Nancy Kaplan and Lamar Lee from the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS).
The event culminated with a carnival for local youth in Molloy’s Quealy Gymnasium. Over 50 children, including many that participate in the Miracle League of Long Island, and their families showed up for the event which featured carnival games and craft stations run by the student-athletes.

“This year’s speakers were excellent once again,” stated Dranoff. “They continue to make a great impression, offering a combination of interactive programming and essential information.” Dranoff continued “The highlight continues to be our visits with area children to talk about the importance of fitness and teamwork as well as our weekend ending carnival where our student-athletes always shine. Special thanks also go to Kristine Fitzpatrick, the Miracle League of Long Island’s Executive Director, who helped promote the event to many of her athletes and their families.”

The event also helped bring the ECC together with another conference from the NCAA Division II East Region, the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. “We were pleased to host Ellen O’Brien from the CACC and Kelly McBryan from Goldey-Beacom along with their CACC student-athlete representatives,” Dranoff noted. “As we continue to develop this important program we hope to work with the CACC on ways to expand it and offer opportunities to even more student-athletes to build leadership skills and qualities.”

FLUSHING, N.Y. (Mar. 22, 2014) – On the first official Saturday of the spring season, three members of the LIU Post field hockey team took part in a 5K walk at Citi Field to raise awareness in the fight against colon cancer.

“It was the day after we had done another huge fundraiser,” said Head Field Hockey Coach Raenee Savin (Nesconset, N.Y.). “But for the girls, this was a cause that really hit home.”

The walk was one of several events taking place in Flushing as part of the 2014 New York Colon Cancer Challenge. Representing the Pioneers in the walk were Abi Sawyer (Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England), Heidi Schaffner (West Long Branch, N.J.) and Melissa Quintanilla (Rome, N.Y.). Quintanilla’s mother passed away after a heroic battle with the disease at the beginning of the fall semester.

“The girls wanted to do something to honor Missy’s mom,” Savin stated. “They wanted to do their part to raise funds for colon cancer research and to help find a cure.”

To learn more about the fight to end colorectal cancer, visit www.coloncancerchallenge.org.

Call it a labor of love or an act of gratitude, but an estimated record 20,000 Texas A&M University students are scheduled to work on 2,000 jobs Saturday (March 29) in the annual Big Event community service project.
Big Event — the largest one-day student-run service project in the nation — began with just six Aggies in 1982 who volunteered to clean up a local cemetery. The students planning the Big Event say they have as their goal making this the biggest year yet and the best. They add that Big Event is in its 32nd year, but those working to bring it about have a total of more than 35 years of experience.

This year for the first time, Big Event has gone international. Aggies studying abroad have planned service projects in Barcelona, Spain, Bonn, Germany, Castiglion, Italy and Mehran University in Pakistan.

“In Spain, Germany and Italy, our study abroad programs from Texas A&M are the main parts of these international Big Events. However, we also have nearby universities interested in starting a Big Event in all these cities (like Bonn University),” says Kevin Brooks, outreach chair for this year’s Big Event.

While it is not clear exactly how many will participate in these international projects taking place the same day as Big Event at Texas A&M, Brooks says at least 100-150 students will be doing 4 or 5 jobs at each location.

“Hopefully this will start the inevitable spread of The Big Event worldwide,” he adds.

In addition, Texas A&M’s Big Event has served as a model and inspiration for an estimated 95 similar events conducted by other universities throughout the nation. These universities learned of Big Event while attending a conference at Texas A&M each year. The conference is planned as a way to help other schools plan their own Big Event and it gives participants an opportunity to get advice from the Aggies and other schools. The outreach committee manages relationships with these other universities as well as The Big Event’s national public relations.

Bright and early Saturday, those legions of Texas A&M students — including varsity athletes, members of the Corps of Cadets, representatives of many of the university’s 800 clubs, fraternities and sororities, as well as scores of individuals — will pick up paint and brushes, rakes, shovels and other tools and fan out across the Bryan-College Station community to tackle fix-up, pick-up and work on projects as a way to say “thank you” to the community that hosts them during their days at Texas A&M.

The student leaders who have worked on this year’s Big Event and helped expand it to a historic level by starting Big Event projects overseas, are ready for Saturday and say they “can’t wait to see the Aggie Spirit in action.”

Big Event began expanding from its very beginnings because the idea of selfless service and giving back the community has a wide appeal to Aggies.

Joe Nussbaum ’84 was one of those first six Aggie volunteers at the first Big Event and he had a hand in its evolution. In 1982 he was a leader in Texas A&M’s Student Government Association along with his friend Evan Secor ’84. Another friend, Becky Bristol ’86 (now Becky Nussbaum), served as the first Big Event publicity director.

Aggies are always passionate about helping wherever they can and, once the idea of Big Event took shape, Nussbaum says other student organizations wanted in on the service project. In fact, when it came time to plan the second Big Event, there were more volunteers than there were projects so Nussbaum and the others began hunting for jobs to do.

From those first six students 32 years ago, Big Event comes to fruition each year with a committee of more than 200 students spending a year planning the monumental undertaking with a meticulous attention to detail that would have done the generals who planned D-Day proud. Like those generals, they have a mission clearly defined by a simple statement: One big day….one big thanks…. one Big Event.

Source: http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/2014/03/24/big-event-marks-32-years-of-community-service/#.UzGPPK1dVHE