As the holiday season approaches, student-athletes continue to volunteer their time to good causes.
Kelly Magliano, junior volleyball player, is a member of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Love Your Melon crew. Love Your Melon is a popular organization and many crews exist at universities across the nation.
The organization sells apparel, mainly hats, with the goal of helping children with cancer. The same hats that get sold to consumers are donated to children with cancer. The more apparel that is sold the more donations that the organization is able to make.
Last week Magliano and other members of the crew stood outside of Trigs grocery store and rung bells in hopes of raising money for the salvation army. The Love Your Melon crew also volunteered at the Stevens Point Area YMCA’s annual Frostbite winter race and road walk.
“Getting out there and helping the community shows that we have respect for the community, so we can get that mutual respect back,” Magliano said.
Sarah Gamillo, senior basketball player, also dedicated her time to help others.
On Nov. 30 Gamillo and her teammates played basketball while helping other students on campus. The women’s basketball team accepted nonperishable food from fans, in exchange for a free ticket to their game.
The nonperishable food was donated to UWSP’s cupboard, which is a food pantry that is accessible to all students. The pantry can be found on campus in the Dreyfus University Center. The pantry aims to help students with financial struggles access food at no cost.
“We are students too, we are not just athletes and it feels good to help out other students as well. It’s very rewarding to give back to the community,” Gamillo said.
Joel Harris, senior swimmer, is the vice-president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee.
In late October Harris, along with other student-athletes, went door-to-door in a Plover neighborhood collecting nonperishable food for the pantry on campus. The homes that they stopped at had been previously notified that Harris and his peers would be collecting non-perishables.
According to Harris, the athletes were able to collect just under 600 pounds of food.
Harris said, “I consider myself a pretty fortunate person, so to help others that are not as fortunate really helps me grow as a person.”
Source: http://thepointeruwsp.com/2016/12/12/tis-the-season-to-volunteer/
Caroline Chalk
Reporter
cchal845@uwsp.edu
