MASCAC STUDENT ATHLETE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAAC)

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2007-08 MASCAC SERVICE PROJECT

BRIDGEWATER, MA, April 8, 2008 -  For the past two years the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) has created and implemented a community service project to give back to the community. 

Community service has been an important theme for all eight state colleges student-athletes both at the college and conference level.  Nancy Bals, Westfield Associate Athletic Director said "community service is an essential part of the MASCAC SAAC and it was great to see the student-athletes work together for the community".

Last year the MASCAC SAAC met at Mass Maritime Academy and spent quality time with residents from a senior center.  That day meant a lot to both the seniors and the student-athletes. 

This year's project theme was from Bridgewater State titled "Support the Troops".  The project included collecting items on each campus and working with an organization called CarePacks, for the purpose of putting together care packages for the deserving soldiers in Iraq. 

The MASCAC SAAC worked all spring gathering up items to send to the troops in Iraq.  On Sunday, April 6, student-athletes from all eight MASCAC Colleges met at Bridgewater State College with organizers from CarePacks from Weymouth, Massachusetts to pack up about 275 boxes which will be sent across the world to the brave military men and women serving in Iraq. 

CarePacks is a non-profit organization that is staffed and managed entirely by volunteers that are dedicated to sending care packages to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Founded in 2004, CarePacks' goal is to provide these soldiers with supplies to help improve their morale, mental health, and quality of life, and to remind soldiers that they are remembered by people "back home." 

The MASCAC student-athletes care packages contained items with food, personal care items, books and more  Each package also contained at least one letter from a college's SAAC. 

Many of the men and women serving over in Iraq are about the same age as the student-athletes going to school and competing at the eight state colleges.  One of the volunteers commented "although you may not agree with the war you have to support the troops".  Student-athletes with friends or families serving were able to pack the boxes and include a hand written note in the CarePacks. 

Many of the packages went to service people that haven't received packages.  The packages should arrive in 7-10 days and are sure to bring some joy and comfort to the soldiers that are putting their lives on the line.  At the end of the day the student-athletes met and brainstormed about ways to improve the sportsmanship across the MASCAC. 

2006-07 MASCAC SAAC SERVICE PROJECT

BUZZARDS BAY, MA, April 1, 2007 - The Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) coordinated and participated in a project centered on the themes of learning, leadership and community service. 

Student-athletes from each of the eight MASCAC institutions researched ideas and then created a 10-minute Power Point presentation of what they would like the conference SAAC to do for a community service project. 

In the fall, each college presented their project to the group and then the student-athletes voted on which of the projects they would like to participate in. When the votes were collected, Massachusetts Maritime Academy's nursing home community service project was the winner.

There were 23 MASCAC SAAC representatives in attendance, including four SAAC advisors.  The group met at noon at Mass. Maritime.  Two Mass. Maritime MASCAC SAAC members led the group through an informative tour of their ship and answered questions from the visiting student-athletes. 

Afterwards, the student-athletes shared some pizza and socialized in the ship's mess deck.  Then the MASCAC SAAC headed out to the nursing home to visit and decorate treats with about 30 residents of the Cape Cod Nursing Home in Buzzards Bay.

At the end of the day, the student-athletes left feeling energized from their community service and having had a chance to socialize and build friendships off the court and playing fields with student-athletes from other MASCAC schools, in addition to their educational tour of the Massachusetts Maritime training ship. 

As one student-athlete who participated said, "It was great to be there yesterday! The tour of the ship was awesome and the elderly were so friendly!" 

The nursing home residents enjoyed sharing desserts and interesting conversation and attention from the MASCAC student-athletes.  

"This was an excellent opportunity for the MASCAC student-athletes to give back to the community as well as learn about presentation and event management skills," MASCAC Commissioner Angela Baumann stated.