2005-06 Projects

UW-Eau Claire
Upcoming Events:
Relay for Life - April 7-8
Community Cleanup and the SAAC social - April 30th.

*Michael Noll Walk/Run: Michael Noll passed away 3 years ago as a result of alcohol. As a SAAC group, we were involved in promoting the event and the organization, as well as requiring each team to bring representatives to volunteer at the registration table.

*Food Drive: Each sport team was given a specific street and section of the city to help distribute 500 bags into the community. Later, SAAC members picked up the bags and counted a total of 800 food items to be donated to a local food pantry.

*Jeff Oliphant Fundriaser: In rememberance of Jeff Oliphant, assistant professor of kinesiology and director of the athletic training education program, every team was asked to donate $1.00 towards the Jeff Oliphant Scholarship Fund.

UW-River Falls
* We collected money from atheltes to help adopt a student at SouthernMiss this fall. This money was collected and sent down towards the relief efforts in collaboration with our Student Senate.

* We are also collecting new and slightly worn shoes to donate to the RedCross. We will be placing bins outside of our athletic facilities during sporting events as well as distibuting flyers in the community. We are going to set a goal of at least 1 pair of shoes per athlete.

*We are also planning a volleyball tournament composed of athletes to encourage a meshing of teams on campus. We will have pizzas and prizes awarded to teams, but it will be kept at a recreational level.

UW-Stevens Point
* SAAC representatives held a shoe drive (which we called "Soles for Souls") during the basketball season this year that ran for several weeks. Students from our university were encouraged to drop their lightly used and unwanted shoes into bins located on campus. Ultimately 116 pairs of shoes were donated. The UWSP SAAC then donated the shoes to our local Goodwill Industries store which will, in turn, be sending them outside of the US to several countries where the individuals living there do not have the opportunity or means to purchase their own shoes. Individuals heading the project were Marie Burrows, Angela Kraemer, and Noah Utecht (all representing the UWSP Men's and Women's Track and Field team).

UW-Superior
* On Halloween our athletes dressed up in costumes and collected non-perishable food items from around the community. We were able to collect a total of 536 items. We gave these items to a chiropractor named Dr. John Lang in Superior who stands outside his office from 12pm to 12pm the next day. He collects food from people and takes it all to a shelter in the area. He has been doing this for 25 years and said that we have given him the most amount of food all at once in the 25 years he's been doing this.

* In January we are having a Kids Night Out. This is where parents can drop off their kids in our athletic facility and we the athletes will take care of them for 5 hours. We have movies, games, food, rock climbing, swimming and more. The parents are very grateful to us and the kids seem to enjoy the time spent with the athletes. We do this 3 times a year and every time it is always a success.

* Starting in January and running till May, each week a different sport is having a few athletes go each day of that week to Superior Middle School. The athletes are there to help the students with homework for an hour and then the following hour is sporting events where the students can play soccer, volleyball, floor hockey and more with the athletes. The athletes are there to be a positive roll model for the students, as well as show them that you can be a good athlete and a good student at the same time.