News

West End Elementary School’s Student Council and Lynbrook High School’s Student Government Association joined forces to raise money for hemophilia research during Lynbrook’s Lacrosse Day in late April. The $200 in proceeds was donated to Christopher’s Hemophilia Benefit in support of West End fifth-grader Christopher Ambrosio. The collaboration between the elementary and high school students resulted from discussions that began in February, when students at a joint meeting brainstormed ways they could work together to benefit an important cause. Christopher, who was born with hemophilia, organizes various initiatives with the support of his family and friends. Their goal is to increase awareness and raise funds for the National Hemophilia Foundation in order to find a cure for this rare bleeding disorder.

With insight from several high school athletes who participate in the Student Government Association, the two student groups decided that a sporting event would present an ideal fundraising opportunity. Approximately 20 elementary and high school students worked together and sold snacks, beach towels, blankets and other items as the varsity boys lacrosse team faced off in a game against Manhasset.

Caption: Students from West End Elementary School and Lynbrook High School teamed up to raise funds for hemophilia during a sporting event sale.

Photos Courtesy of Lynbrook Public Schools

New York – This past April 13, the Queens College mens tennis and women’s swimming and diving teams left campus with Emanuel Avila, Associate Director of Judicial Affairs & Service Learning at Queens College , to go to the streets of Manhattan to feed and clothe the homeless.

Tennis Coach Somadi was amazed at the number of homeless that approached the van for food. One Tennis Freshman said while he was handing out water “ Coach it feels so nice helping these people!” The homeless were so appreciative to receive food and clothes from us.

Swim team captain stated that ” This is the second time I have been on the run and it reinforced what I have to be thankful for! I think that all the athletes really had a different outlook on life and how lucky they are as they climbed into their nice warms beds that night!”

The Queens College swimming and diving team and the men’s tennis team helped live out the Collge’s motto, Discimus ut Serviamus, “We learn so that we may serve.”

The Carle Place Key Club recently hosted its annual Student/Teacher Fashion show. More than 100 Key Club members (whichi include student athletes) participated in the event, which featured various students, staff members and their children strutting their stuff on the runway to model clothes from Lord and Taylor, Dress Barn, Bass, Men’s Wearhouse and Estelle’s Dressy Dresses. Over 30 local vendors and Carle Place families provided raffles for and large donations for the event.

The event fundraised money for Victoria Monteforte who is a 2 year old child from Carle Place with a disease called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura. Victoria’s mom is Lisa Sterlacci-Monteforte who graduated from CPHS in 1999. ITP is an autoimmune disease/disorder in which the immune system attacks the body’s platelets. One form of treatment for this disease is blood transfusions which Victoria receives. Victoria needs our help raising awareness for this rare disease and funding treatments that are not covered by insurance.

The 2015 fashion show sold out the auditorium and was able to fundraise a remarkable $17,373 for ITP awareness and 2 year old Victoria Monteforte’s treatments. The event showcased school unity and community pride.

Story and photo courtesy of Carle Place School District.

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State student-athletes have won the inaugural “Southland Strong” Community Service Award, which is awarded to the Southland Conference institution whose competitors record the most service hours during the academic year.

The award will be presented during the Southland Honors Ceremony May 19 at the Frisco Westin Stonebriar Hotel, culminating the annual conference spring business meetings involving leaders from all 13 conference members.

Northwestern State student-athletes completed 3,156 hours of community service for the academic year, which led all league schools by almost 900 hours. Sam Houston State finished behind NSU for the community service award, followed by Southeastern Louisiana, with both institutions logging more than 2,000 hours of community service. Central Arkansas, Lamar and McNeese State also contributed more than 1,000 service hours of work. As a conference, more than 14,000 service hours were recorded by student-athletes to better Southland communities.

“It’s a tribute to our student-athletes, first and foremost,” said NSU director of athletics Greg Burke. “We talk all the time about their very busy lives, and the expectations are so high, and the pressure is significant academically and athletically. To find time to do community service, make a difference for others, be a servant-leader, that’s really neat and very commendable.

“In some ways, community service is a good release for our young people. They are truly gratified by the opportunity to interact with the people they’re assisting and in many cases it’s an inspiring, uplifting and most often, very fun activity they remember among the very best parts of their college experience,” said Burke.

The Lady Demons softball team logged the most service hours in 2014-15 among NSU sports squads with 685 hours, followed by the women’s soccer team with 607 and the Demon football team with 509.5 hours.

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at NSU also put on a Southland Gives Back event in which student-athletes contributed time and energy to help the Natchitoches Area Jaycees donate over $19,000 worth of toys to more than 300 children in and around Natchitoches.

“The fact that our university, our student-athletes, our athletic department have earned this first-ever award makes me very proud. It makes our campus and community proud as well,” said Burke. “Community service is an integral part of the ‘personal responsibility’ credo in our department motto of ‘academic achievement, personal responsibility, competitive excellence’ and it’s very gratifying for NSU to receive this recognition for living out one of our cornerstone values.”

NSU Athletics is successfully upholding all three elements of the departmental motto. In each of the last two semesters, student-athletes have set record high cumulative grade point averages, a composite 2.96 for the fall 2014 semester by the nearly 400 competitors at NSU. On the fall Southland Commissioner’s Honor Roll recognizing competitors in fall sports with at least a 3.0 semester GPA, Northwestern State led all conference members with 96 honorees.

Over the last 26 months, NSU teams have won 10 Southland regular-season or tournament championships while five sports – men’s and women’s basketball, softball, women’s tennis and volleyball – have reached a combined eight NCAA Tournaments. Meanwhile, NSU’s track and field program has won 10 All-America awards for individual top 16 finishes at NCAA national meets and the Demons finished tied for 20th at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Earlier this week, for the second consecutive year, NSU student-athletes swept the Southland Conference’s Steve McCarty Citizenship Awards, given annually to the male and female competitors deemed most remarkable in their community service efforts among nominees from each of the Southland’s 13 member schools. Graduated soccer standout Jackie Strug was the women’s winner announced Tuesday, while junior football quarterback Daniel Hazlewood received the men’s McCarty Award.

The overall community service award announced Thursday was established to encourage and reward member institutions to give back to the community that supports them.

Along with campus-wide events, the Southland promotes three annual league-wide drives with the TOMS Shoe Drive or Samaritan’s Feet, which donates shoes to those in need, the Pull Tab Collection, which raises funds for the Ronald McDonald House at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the Southland Gives Back event, which is a community service project in the local community leading up to winter break.

Source: http://www.nsudemons.com/news/2015/5/14/BB_0514154817.aspx

MALVERN, Pa. – Abigail Bensley (Malvern, Pa.) of the Southern Connecticut State University gymnastics team donated an array of items to a Goodwill branch in her native Pennsylvania earlier this week.

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 2014-15 academic year.