Rockville Centre, N.Y. – In 2003, NCAA Division II formed an alliance with the Make-A-Wish Foundation in order to connect student-athletes directly to a charitable cause. Since then, student-athletes at NCAA Division II institutions nationwide have put their rivalries aside and channeled their competitive spirits toward a common goal – raising money for Make-A-Wish. For 2013, NCAA Division II chose five institutions that achieved exemplary fundraising results and rewarded them with the opportunity to host an on-campus wish party. The party allowed each institution to witness first-hand the life-changing impact of a wish. On Saturday, February 15, Molloy College, hosted one of the five celebrations, when Alexander, a 14-year-old boy from Brooklyn, N.Y., and his family came to campus.

“We are honored to have NCAA Division II on our team,” said Anne Travous, Corporate Alliances Manager at Make-A-Wish. “Each and every student-athlete participant in the alliance has made it possible for Make-A-Wish to grant more wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.”

Alexander arrived on campus and first met the members of Molloy’s men’s basketball team. At a press conference afterwards, he joined the team and was given his own No. 45 jersey, with “Alexander” stitched across the back. He took part in the team’s warm-up drills, pre-game locker room meeting and was introduced to the crowd as the team’s 6th Man at the end of the Lions’ starting lineup. He also threw up a ceremonial first tipoff. In between the warm-up drills and the starting lineups, Alexander was presented with tickets to a New York Knicks versus Miami Heat game in Miami, Florida, making his wish come true. The Make-A-Wish Foundation secured the airfare and game tickets for him and his family. He also received gear and apparel from Molloy and its opponent, St. Thomas Aquinas College. Once the game began, Alexander sat on the bench with his new teammates.

“This was a great day for our student-athletes, Molloy College and our athletic department,” said Molloy Director of Athletics Susan Cassidy-Lyke. “Seeing all their hard work come to fruition was so rewarding for the student-athletes and energizes them to do it again. It was great to be a part of this wonderful day for Alex.”

The NCAA Division II alliance has generated nearly $3 million dollars in total for Make-A-Wish; $517,000 in the 2013 fiscal year alone. Fundraising at each institution is coordinated by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which is comprised of student-athletes from each sport.

In the 2012-13 academic year, the Molloy College Athletics Department raised over $12,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which was more than any other NCAA Division II institution.

To view a photo gallery of the day’s events, please click the link above or click here.

Provided by the Molloy Sports Information Department.

For EWU athletes and the athletic department, serving the community is a big part of what they do in addition to scoring touchdowns and making baskets.

“Our student-athletes take an active role in the community. [This] is one of the missions and goals of the strategic plan of the university,” assistant athletic director for compliance Joel Vickery said. “The athletic department definitely buys into that.”

According to Vickery, last year the athletic department had over 500 hours of community service. One of the events that Eastern athletics usually take part in are stuffed animal drives, where they donate stuffed animals to children’s hospitals.

EWU athletics also takes part in reading to school children, and helping with Feed Cheney, which is a free meal and free grocery distribution for people in need. They participate in school supply drives and coin drives, which help the less fortunate gain access to shoes. Around $600 was collected for this year’s coin drive. For the school supply drive, Eastern athletics collaborated with the Africana studies department.

The Eastern football team also helped raise $3,100 for Special Olympics at Polar Plunge. “The Polar Plunge was actually a great time for us,” sophomore defensive back Jordan Tonani said. “We had quite a few guys that went out and participated. Coach [Beau] Baldwin came initially to support us, but he ended up coming in with us and jumping in the lake.”

“From what I’ve noticed in seeing and being a part of some of the initiatives that the student-athletes take on is they all have a lot of fun when they do [community service],” Vickery said. “I think they really find the joy of service whenever they go and do that stuff.”

Vickery mentions that a lot of the different EWU sports teams usually do community service on their own. However, there is a group within Eastern athletics called SAAC, student-athlete advisory committee, which includes a number of Eastern athletes getting together to serve the community. When a sport is out of season, teams usually have a little bit more time to provide their services to the community.

Track and field sprinter senior Angelica Rodriguez participated in the AVID program, or advancement via individual determination program, at Cheney High School during fall quarter. AVID is a program that is structured to increase learning and performance for students. She also participated in the Windsor Elementary Fitness Frenzy.

Rodriguez, who is also the SAAC president, is responsible for leading community service projects. The group organizes assignments and goals for the projects. They communicate and get feedback from each other in order to execute the projects in the best way.

Rodriguez sees the importance of serving the community as a learning experience for EWU athletes. “Each student-athlete then has the opportunity to learn something from these things going on around them that are outside of the athletic and academic worlds that they live in,” Rodriguez said.

“In serving the community, sometimes it seems that the way I can serve is insignificant or stressful at times,” Rodriguez said. “But those that I have the opportunity to serve may see it differently.”

Rodriquez is humbled to think that even small acts of kindness can mean a lot to people.

“It’s important for them to do that to understand that their entire lives are going to have aspects of that,” Vickery said. He explains that even when athletes move on and graduate college, they will probably take part in serving the community in their futures. Because they understand the feeling of helping people in need.

“It doesn’t really change for any of us professionally who’ve gone on and graduated school. I know the college here and the athletic department, we all try to give back in ways for charitable organizations and events,” Vickery said.

Vickery appreciates the generosity that the athletes have with their time. “That’s what’s been so impressive to me is to see really just the good nature and the good hearts that a lot of our student-athletes have,” Vickery said.

Tonani expresses his feelings about community service and how it affects him. “It’s a good feeling as just a human to be able to help people out who aren’t necessarily as fortunate as you,” Tonani said. “Someone has helped you out along the way so why not give back and help someone else out as well, it’s very important to be doing things like that.”

Rodriguez plans on volunteering for the Special Olympics track meet held in Cheney in the spring. The school supply drive is also going to end on March 8 during the men’s basketball game against Weber State. Tonani plans on reading to grade school students about his college experience.

By Elohino Theodore
Source: http://easterneronline.com/2014/03/05/student-athletes-and-athletic-department-serve-the-community/

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Student-athletes from the Southern Connecticut State University volleyball team traveled to Boys and Girls Club in Wallingford for another session of the interactive athletic program with the children.

This program 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 3,000 hours of their time to numerous outreach efforts, both on-campus and in Greater New Haven, during the 2012-13 academic year.

Source: http://www.southernctowls.com/news/2014/3/3/VB_0303143822.aspx

MADISON, Wis. — At 6-foot-3, Wisconsin football player Warren Herring is hard to miss. Add an extra foot in the form of a red and white striped hat and his presence is unmistakable.

Herring and six of his fellow Badgers clad in Dr. Suess hats made quite an impact at the first of more than 15 Read Across America Day celebrations that UW student-athletes will take part in over a two-week period.

Football player Austin Hudson, golfer Thomas O’Bryan, women’s rowers Stephanie Malchine and Kelsey Kramer and women’s tennis players Lauren Burich and Lauren Chypyha attended the first visit on Feb. 24 at Prairie View Elementary School, where they read books with students and engaged in other games promoting literacy.

“The kids were all so eager to read with us, whether it was a Dr. Seuss book or one of our Bucky books,” Chypyha said. “It was great to see how excited they all were.”

The visit to Prairie Elementary was just a warm-up, however, for the 10-school tour Badgers student-athletes will take part in on Monday — national Read Across America Day.

“Forty-five student-athletes from nine different sports are signed up to appear on Monday,” said Kayla Gross, UW Athletics Community Relations Coordinator. “Promoting literacy is important to them and they jumped at the chance to don the beloved Dr. Suess hats and visit local schools.”

The Badgers’ Read Across America Day efforts are part of the department’s larger effort to promote literacy. Many of the schools receiving visits are part of Badgers Give Back’s “Bookin’ It With Bucky” program, a program that pairs student-athletes with local fourth-grade classrooms to help achieve a set reading goal.

Through the program, the Badgers have become fixtures in 25 classrooms across Dane County.

“Student-athletes have been visiting schools through the Bookin’ It With Bucky program for more than 10 years,” Gross said. “This year we have reached a record number of schools and I really attribute that to our student-athletes. They are really committed to promoting literacy and are eager to get involved.”

Literacy efforts will also be a primary focus of the annual Wisconsin Football Spring Game, with all proceeds benefiting the UW School of Education and its ongoing efforts to promote literacy.

Fans can catch an early glimpse of Head Coach Gary Andersen’s 2014 Badgers while also providing support to the School of Education at the game, which is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, at Camp Randall Stadium. Tickets are on sale for $5 online at UWBadgers.com or by calling 1-800-GO-BADGERS. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Wisconsin Athletic Ticket Office.

Fans can follow along with the Badgers’ Read Across America Day effort on Twitter by following @UWBadgers and #BadgersGiveBack.

Source:

Selden, N.Y. – For the fifth consecutive year, cheerleading and dance teams from East Coast Conference and other Long Island institutions joined together to perform in the ECC’s Spirit Showcase. The event, which raises proceeds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, raised over $3,500 for the foundation.

“Our Fifth Annual Spirit Showcase was our most successful yet,” said ECC Commissioner, Dr. Robert Dranoff. “The young men and women and their coaches truly have to be thanked and commended for taking the time to perform and raise money for Make-A-Wish. I am honored to be part of all the important service activities the ECC and our friends are involved in. There never seems to be a hesitation when it comes to giving back and making a difference.”
Each year the event is kicked off with a former wish recipient provided by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Suffolk County. This year’s speaker was MarissaAnn, 16, from Long Island.

MarissaAnn spoke about her own experience and gratitude with the Make-A-Wish foundation. At the age of five months old, she was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare liver disease. This fatal disease led to a liver transplant, with her father donating half of his liver. Because of this, she was granted her wish to go to Hawaii by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Now a singer/songwriter, MarissaAnn has been a contestant on the hit show, “The Voice,” and showed off her singing chops to the Spirit Showcase crowd with a stirring rendition of, “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Dranoff stated, “Thanks especially to MarissaAnn for speaking and singing for us and for her family coming by to support her. She is a talented, smart and confident young woman who already has, and will continue to do, great things. We are pleased she was able to be part of this important ECC event. And you could tell by the reaction of the crowd, they were happy to have her with us, too.”

After MarissaAnn spoke and sang, the cheerleaders and dancers took center stage with outstanding performances.

Although focused on participation from member institutions, the East Coast Conference opened the showcase up to local Metro New York squads. Performers included cheerleading squads from Adelphi, Bridgeport, LIU Post, Molloy, New York Institute of Technology, St. John’s, St. Thomas Aquinas as well as dance teams from Adelphi, LIU Post, Molloy, Queens, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Suffolk County Community College. The step team from Molloy also performed.

Through ticket sales, raffles, and concessions, the East Coast Conference raised over $3,500 to donate to the foundation. The event has now raised over $15,000 for Make-A-Wish in its five-year history.

Dranoff wraped up his statements by saying, “Finally, thanks go out to our member schools and also to Suffolk County Community College, St. John’s University, and Adelphi University for participating this year. And, as always, special thanks have to go to SCCC Cheer and Dance Coach, Gina Caputo, who has been part of this effort from the start five years ago. Gina helps make this a special day for all the teams, friends and family members who attend and also for those kids who do benefit from our Make-A-Wish work.