WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College athletic department continued to raise the bar for community service and fundraising during the 2015-16 academic year, raising more than $8,000 for local charities and dedicating more than 1,000 hours to local community service.
“I am always amazed at our student-athletes willingness to get involved and help when schoolwork and athletics seems to take so much of their time,” Director of Athletics Mike Clark said. “In the past three years alone, we have dedicated more than 3,000 hours of service and raised almost $23,000 for charity. I am incredibly proud of the department’s efforts to step in and help the greater Lycoming community.”
Most of the athletic department’s funds were raised in support of the fight against cancer, with the cheerleading, cross country, football, softball, swimming, volleyball, women’s soccer and women’s basketball teams combining to raise $4,060 during the college’s Relay For Life event. Volleyball led the way at the event, raising $2,322.
The men’s lacrosse team also chipped into the fight against cancer, raising $2,522 in the fall to participate in a HEADstrong fall lacrosse tournament. The women’s soccer team pulled in nearly $700 for a fundraiser in awareness of blood cancer in the fall and the women’s lacrosse team raised $120 for Team Molly, which raises awareness for Ewing Sarcoma. The swim team’s meanwhile, also raised $100 during the Ted Mullin Hour of Power for Sarcoma Research and $50 more during the Snowden Library’s American Cancer Society Read-In.
The football team also raised $200 during their Be The Match Bone Marrow Drive.
The department also had a large hand in community service in the Williamsport area. The football team’s freshmen helped with cleanup at Sunnybrook Meadows and on the Loyalsock Trail in August during the college’s orientation. The men’s basketball team read to kindergartners at both Rommelt Elementary School in South Williamsport and Schick Elementary School in Loyalsock Township.
The women’s basketball team raised $300 for the Lycoming County SPCA during its annual Hoops for Hounds Tournament and also volunteered at the SPCA’s Paws for Cause 5K in April. The women’s lacrosse team donated its time for a Family Promise Coat Drive in December.
The Lycoming College wrestling team helped with the Montoursville Midget Wrestling Tournaments and technique clinics held in January and February, helping to do set-up, work the mat tables during the tournament and teardown at the three tournaments. The men’s soccer team also volunteered their services for youth officiating at the Liberty Sports Arena.
The football team hosted Be the Match Registry as part of the Get in the Game campaign, working a bone marrow testing drive in April, where more than 100 people registered as possible bone marrow donors. In two years of hosting the event, the Warriors have added more than 300 donors to the Be The Match Registry.
More than 125 Warrior athletes spent the morning of April 17 working with Favors Forward. With a large contingent of football, cross country, volleyball and women’s soccer athletes, the teams spent the day working with the Williamsport organization during its Day of Caring, doing various works around the Lycoming County area, which mostly included doing yard work for senior citizens and those physically unable to do yard work.
To cap off the year, on April 22, the lacrosse, soccer and football teams helped run the annual sports clinic for the fifth-grade class of Rommelt Middle School in South Williamsport, Pa., at the college’s Shangraw Athletic Complex.
