DURANT, Okla. - Southeastern Athletics kicked off its efforts in a renewed spirit of volunteerism at Southeastern with an afternoon of service on August 27, 2012. Over 200 student-athletes, coaches and staff completed 30 campus and community projects - ranging from weeding and mulching to washing windows and helping locals with their groceries - all as a part of the first CommUNITY Engagement kickoff. By design, it was the student-athlete's first official athletic event of the 2012-13 academic year.
"After the dust settled on Monday, literally, we had logged over 750 man hours in one afternoon," said Athletic Director Keith Baxter. "We are hopeful we had a positive impact on our campus and community. I know some of the student-athletes earned All-American status in my book because of their tremendous work ethic, I bet those student-athletes are going to be fun to coach."
2012's CommUNITY Engagement Day is meant to be the first step towards our vision of a collective CommUNITY service day that is much bigger in future years. The projects were chosen primarily on campus to start this CommUNITY initiative by giving back to our most immediate community – the University that supports our department and student-athletes.
An engagement committee was formed early this summer to lead the effort for Monday's day of service. Darin Grover, Kelly Green and Shawn Hamil served on the team led by Luke Willman. Senior offensive lineman Matt Unger participated as a part of his management internship with the athletic department through Southeastern's John Massey School of Business.
The event began with a rally of all student-athletes, staff and project team leaders in Sullivan Arena at Southeastern. From there, groups gathered their supplies and equipment and spread out across campus and town to complete 30 projects from 2–5 p.m. when they returned for a meal prepared James Dudley and Michael Hefta and the SE Athletic Training department.
"It was a great start to what we hope is a whole year of service by our student-athletes," said Willman. "We are committed to engaging Durant and Texoma and there is no better way to get to know our fans than through service."
If you are interested in volunteering in Texoma, check out the list of opportunities below. To have your service organization added to this list, contact Luke Willman at lwillman@se.edu or 580-745-2433.
Volunteer Opportunities in Texoma
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Bryan County Medical Reserve Corps The Bryan county MRC was formed in January of 2011. We are comprised of nurses, surgens, public health, clergy, and other useful experience. Each member is involved to help support the local Health Department in the case of a Public Health Emergency. We also work closely with our police fire and EMS along with the Emergency Management to create a unified front in emergency response. Our mission is to support and uplift the existing first responding agencies and to help relive so of the manpower issues that we all needed during a real world incident.
Contact: Jeremie Fisher at (580) 924-4285
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Families Feeding Families Founded in 2004, FFF believes in service and teaching our children the imporance of service. Located at the George Washington School in Durant, OK, the kitchen is open from 4:30-6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The group provides nearly 50,000 meals annually.
Contact: Families Feeding Families at 580.230.9142
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Master Gardeners Master Gardeners are groups affiliated with a land-grant university and one of its cooperative extension service officesvolunteers that advise and educate the public on gardening and horticulture. Master Gardeners receive extensive training and then provide information to the public via phone or email helplines, speaking at public events, writing articles for publications and the internet, and partnering with other community programs, gardens, and educational facilities.There are nearly 95,000 active Extension Master Gardeners, who provide approximately 5,000,000 volunteer service hours of per year to their communities. Once volunteers are accepted into a Master Gardener program, they are trained by cooperative extension, university, and local industry specialists in subjects such as taxonomy, plant pathology, soil health, entomology, cultural growing requirements, sustainable gardening, nuisance wildlife management, and integrated pest management.
Contact: Jane McMillan jmcmillan@se.edu
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Reach Out and Read Volunteers support by organizing book drives in their communities to benefit local Reach Out and Read Programs and clinics. Volunteer readers transform clinic waiting rooms into literacy-rich areas for children and parents, and help families learn the joys and the techniques of reading aloud. Volunteers read to children, modeling book-sharing techniques for parents and showing them by example that reading aloud is fun for parent and child. Volunteers can also support Reach Out and Read Programs by organizing fundraising efforts, creating literacy-rich waiting rooms, and performing administrative tasks
Contact: www.reachoutandread.org
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Texoma RSVP Texoma RSVP is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service whose mission is to assist people ages 55 and older find enriching volunteer opportunities to utilize their talents and make positive impacts within the community. Volunteers needed to take snack items and Reba's Ranch House information to Texoma Medical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian-WNJ. The volunteer will be able to share with those waiting for loved ones about the housing opportunity at the Ranch House.
Contact Chrisina Chancellor at (903) 813-3587
