COMMUNITY SERVICE

Missouri-St. Louis student-athletes do a lot more than win games and earn degrees. They also play an active role in community service projects. It is part of the athletic department's philosophy of giving back to a community that has given so much to the university, while also exposing student-athletes to the rewarding experiences that come from helping and interacting with others.

Missouri-St. Louis student-athletes do a lot more than win games and earn degrees. They also play an active role in community service projects.

While many of the athletic teams have done various projects year in and year out on their own, Harry Harris, Student Development Coordinator for Athletics, along with other UMSL athletics staff personnel, have been trying to develop other ideas to get student-athletes even more involved in volunteering their time. Therefore, Harris came up with 20 Days of Service, which ran from Oct. 26 to Nov. 14.

“We tried to put it in a time period that would allow teams already in season to still be a part of this after their season was over and for those teams not yet in season to get the project started,” said Harris.

The first project involved the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) working with the Habitat for Humanity and since then, teams have volunteered their time with different organizations and projects.

“I asked each coach what their team would be interested in doing and went out and tried to best match them up with projects that were available,” said Harris.

Many teams volunteered time serving food at Centenary Cares, which provides several different services - including hot meals - to area homeless, while other teams spent time playing games with children from St. Vincent’s Children’s Home.

Some of the projects fell out the 20-day parameter, but to Harris that was ok.

“The real goal of this project was to get the teams involved and that’s what we accomplished,” he said.

Harris also noted that while the student-athletes were giving their time to benefit others, they were also benefiting themselves.

“They really have experienced the needs of others and were able to see people in situations that are not fortunate like themselves,” he said. “They might complain to each other about practice going long or having to run in the rain, but when they saw someone who doesn’t have a home, it really brightened the day on both sides.”

Harris said the 20 Days of Service project is something he envisions growing and expanding.

“The student-athletes are really getting behind it and want to do more,” he said. “Coming up with ‘20 Days of Service’ was just a starting point – I definitely see it becoming bigger in the future and hopefully making it a semester long project someday.”