For athletes, community work strengthens on-field efforts
Nearly 50 courses have a service-learning component this academic year at Skidmore. But serving the community isn't restricted to the classroom. This fall, several sports teams engaged in community service:
?Men's Lacrosse: The team returned for a second year to the West Side Celebration. Team members were out in force at the street festival, helping with children's face painting, sidewalk art, and games, and selling raffle tickets. The team is quite familiar with the city's west side, having regularly volunteered at the neighborhood's Franklin Community Center, which offers services to the homeless, a food pantry, and after-school programs.
Coach Jack Sandler sets the example through his involvement with the Saratoga Partnership for Prevention. He notes, "My personal belief is that it is essential to use what you have to help others. It is easy for students to get caught in a 'bubble' that surrounds campus. We've had some great experiences working on the west side and meeting people from all walks of life. It's always a great feeling to give back to the community that gives you so much, and it gets students into areas of Saratoga that they may not explore otherwise. Lastly, it has led to sustained outreach by the student-athletes beyond anything that I organize."
?Volleyball: The team raised more than $3,000 this fall in its second year participating in "Dig Pink," a national event organized by the Virginia-based Side-Out Foundation, which uses volleyball to raise funds for breast cancer victims and survivors. Fans at two October games were asked to donate. Skidmore Coach Hilda Arrechea, herself a breast cancer survivor, says, "Cancer has touched the lives of so many, including myself and some of my players and their families. It is a great cause and a great event for the Skidmore community to support." Skidmore has raised about $5,000 for the "Dig Pink" program in two years.
?Ice Hockey: Players volunteered to help run the America's Cup short-track speed-skating race in October at the Saratoga Springs City Rink, which is also the Thoroughbreds' home arena. Twenty-eight players, working in eight-hour shifts over two days, assisted with such tasks as timing, judging, and working on the ice. The team also volunteers with the local youth hockey program's "Learn to Skate" project.
Tim Daley '10 and Joe Melnyk '11 both feel that participating in community service supports their team's success in the classroom and on the ice. According to them, community service allows the team to pursue projects that reflect its values, as well as bring players and coaches together.
?Women's Lacrosse: The team exceeded its goal, raising almost $1,600 this fall by participating in the Capital Region Memory Walk for the Alzheimer's Association. The event raises awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support, and research. Not content to focus solely on worthy causes in the U.S., the team also made time for outreach last summer in Prague, Czechoslovakia. During a team tour to watch and play in events surrounding the Women's Lacrosse World Cup, Thoroughbreds led a sports clinic for a Prague orphanage housing children ages 1?18.
Introducing lacrosse to the children at the Prague orphanage was a "wonderful" experience, says Coach Abby Burbank. And although the Prague children trounced the Skidmore athletes in a pickup soccer game, the takeaway was the lesson that sports transcends language and culture barriers to build relationships among people of different nations.
Burbank encourages the athletes to get involved in off-campus activities of their own choosing: "As a team, they do the research and decide what it is they want to support. What they give to the community off the field strengthens their work on the field."
