When University of Bridgeport head women’s basketball coach Stephanie Del Preore came to campus three years ago, she arrived with a blueprint not only to create a winning program, but also with a plan to honor her late father who passed away in 2002 after a courageous battle with liver and kidney disease.

While the basketball part of the equation is an on-going process that takes a great amount of recruiting and hard work in practice, Del Preore’s brainchild to honor her late father continues to reach new heights year after year.

On February 16, 2013, the University of Bridgeport held its third annual “Donate Life” Day when the Purple Knights hosted Queens College in an East Coast Conference basketball doubleheader.

Stated coach Del Preore, “I’m so proud of how things have grown with our “Donate Life” event as we have now raised over $6,400 for Donate Life Connecticut over the last three years. This year things were even bigger and better as we raised $2,700. The community support both on and off campus has been great. In 2002, I lost my father to a battle with liver and kidney disease. In 1996 he received a double liver/kidney transplant which prolonged his life six more years. I was fortunate to have him at every basketball game I played from middle school to high school, and then my freshman and sophomore year at Marist College. Losing him was the worst thing I’ve ever went through, and basketball was my outlet. I always said that when I became a head coach I was going to do something to honor my father, my hero and my inspiration.”

All proceeds from the day (all tickets sales and a variety of raffles) were donated to the Donate Life Connecticut organization to help raise awareness about organ and tissue donations to help save lives.

Raffle prizes, which were drawn at both the women’s and men’s game, included a variety of tickets to sporting events in the tri-state area and New England, a variety of hotel stays throughout the area, gift baskets plus many gift cards to both local and national retailers and restaurants.

University of Bridgeport Director of Athletics Jay Moran praised his head women’s basketball coach saying, “The amount of time and effort that Steph has put into the “Donate Life” Days is truly awesome. When she first came to UB, she told me of her idea to honor her Dad, and I told her let me know how we can help as a department, and with the help of all the members of our UB Athletics family and many other people both on and off campus, the day had grown into something truly special and something we look forward to every season.”

For more information on the Donate Life program and how to register to be an organ and tissue donor, please visit the Donate Life Connecticut website at www.ctorganandtissuedonation.org

Provided by the Bridgeport Sports Information Department.

Students at Pasadena Park Elementary School received about 80 special visitors Thursday.

Athletes participating in today’s NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, stopped by the school to meet the kids and do a little running.

In Emily Lieb’s fourth-grade classroom, the women’s cross country team from the University of Minnesota Duluth talked to students about why they like to run and what it’s like to be a student-athlete.

“I was a huge soccer player,” said Allie Rudin, a junior majoring in marketing at the school.

The athletes talked about their majors, there were future teachers, doctors, writers, coaches and businesswomen. Pasadena kids asked them about their favorite sports, besides running, of course.

Eric Sawyer, president and chief executive officer of the Spokane Sports Commission, said this is the second year the NCAA Division II championships have come to Spokane. The first time was two years ago. This year’s roster includes 57 women’s teams and 56 men’s teams.

“We try with every event to expose athletes to younger kids,” Sawyer said.

The NCAA likes to connect with students as well.

“Having the cross country student-athletes go out and interact with a local elementary school helps to connect the students not only with the sport of cross country, but also allows them to interact with college students from across the country,” said Bridget Johnson Tetteh, Great Northwest Athletic Conference assistant commissioner.

The students were inspired.

“I think all of them were very beautiful,” said Sophia Chreiki, 9, a student in Lieb’s class who likes to play basketball. “I want the heart of an athlete like all of them.”

“I think they’re really cool,” said Ellie Engeland, 9, who likes to play soccer and softball. “I want to grow up to be just like them.”

After the athletes answered questions, they passed around posters the students could keep and signed autographs. There was a little bit of time left in Lieb’s class, so they played a spirited round of “Heads Up, Seven Up,” before heading outside to run around the playground.

Principal Robyn Davis said the experience was wonderful. Many teachers logged on to Google Maps and showed students where the athletes were from.

“The teachers have had as much fun as the kids,” Davis said.

Janelle Sordelet, a Parent Teacher Organization volunteer, said the students appreciated the visits because many of them also run in a club that meets after school. Thursday’s event brought out the runner in all of them.

“I have not seen this many kids running out here before,” Sordelet said.

Source: Lisa Leinberger @ http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/nov/23/cross-country-runners-visit-pasadena-park/

Approximately 150 athletes, in addition to athletic department staff, teamed up on Thursday afternoon to pack 40,000 meals to send to families in the Philippines who have been affected by the recent hurricane.

Teamwork · On Thursday, student athletes worked together to pack bags of rice for those affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. – Austin Vogel | Daily Trojan
Teamwork · On Thursday, student athletes worked together to pack bags of rice for those affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. – Austin Vogel | Daily Trojan

The group, which included members of the lacrosse, swimming and tennis teams, formed 14 assembly lines to efficiently pack rice, lentils, vegetables, Himalayan salt and some other seasonings and vitamins in bags. All supplies were provided by the nonprofit organization Feeding Children Everywhere.

“We were really excited to come over here and give you guys an opportunity to serve. That’s what we want to be about as an organization,” Peter Marshall, Feeding Children Everywhere’s West Coast event coordinator, told the students. “We want to help you guys get involved in service, and not just a place for dollars, but a place for you guys to be engaged and mobilized into serving your community locally and globally.”

Matt Ackels, director of community outreach for the athletic department, said Athletic Director Pat Haden wanted to do something for the Philippines because Wilfred “Fred” Uytengsu, one of department’s major donors, lives and works in the country.

Feeding Children Everywhere had previously done an event with the swim teams in August to pack 10,000 meals for local children. For this event, Ackels turned to the entire athletic department.

“I invited the coaches first and I got six or seven teams saying ‘Yeah, we’ll be there, we want to help out,’” Ackels said. “What really surprised me was just yesterday I emailed the entire athletic department staff and said what we’re doing and over half the staff wrote back saying, ‘I’ll be there.’”

Ackels noted that at least 30 staff members attended the event, including Haden himself.

“[The student athletes] do 3,000 hours of community service a year. … I’m trying to get to as many events as I can,” Haden said. “We’re told that 2 million people are without food [in the Philippines], so we’re just trying to do our part.”

Many student-athletes said they were excited they had the chance to give back.

“It’s just a good opportunity to help them. They’re really suffering right now,” said Annie Ruland, a freshman lacrosse player.

Coaches were also supportive of the event, even allowing athletes to volunteer instead of holding practice for the day.

“This is our 2 p.m. practice for Thursday afternoon,” Chase Bloch, co-captain of the swim team, joked.

Bloch, however, couldn’t resist making the event a competition in itself.

“It gets competitive. [Last time we] broke up into classes — freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior — and [had] a little race,” he said referring to the August event.

This time around, Marshall counted off athletes and assigned them to tables. The tables later raced to see who could fill two boxes of meals the fastest. Though the hour of packing meals was filled with fun, Ackels stressed that overall it was about helping others.

“It’s not, ‘cut us a check or send a couple people out to deliver something,’” he said of packing the meals. “It’s really ‘everybody get here, we’re going to pack this stuff and really have an impact.’”

By ISABELLA SAYYAH · Daily Trojan
– See more at: http://dailytrojan.com/2013/11/21/athletes-pack-meals-to-send-to-the-philippines/#sthash.LcU5QI61.dpuf

New York, N.Y. – With Thanksgiving right around the corner, many Americans sit back and reflect on the blessings they have. For the Queens College student-athletes, the evening was a chance to bond as a team, give back to the less fortunate and to tangibly live the school’s motto of ‘Dicimus ut Serviamus’, Latin for, we learn so that we may serve.

The athletic department had all hands on deck for this event as the men’s basketball team, softball team and volleyball team spent part of their night collecting clothes, packing items and making food and sandwiches to be distributed later in the night.

After that step was complete, the swimming team chipped in by packing a few vans and having everyone head into Manhattan to distribute the food, clothing and toiletries to the homeless around New York.

In fact, the main goal of the event was to build a strong relationship between the volunteers and the homeless through the act of caring. Adam, a homeless man, was very grateful for the winter clothes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches expressing, “It’s great to see so many young men and woman coming out on a school night and caring about us”. Another homeless man, Thomas expressed “It feels great that there are still some people who still cares about us”.
The Queens College athletic department will continue to volunteer in this memorable community service going forward.