It’s back to school time for hundreds of thousands of student athletes across America and we are excited to kick off the year with a new group of service-minded Athletes for Hope University (AFH U) students this year. During the 2017-2018 school year, AFH U student athletes volunteered a combined 4,450 hours of service with 221 community visits, impacting more than 17,000 school children!
Athletes at University of Virginia, Louisiana State University (LSU), Southern University (Southern), Tulane University, Michigan State University (MSU), University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Women’s basketball team are all gearing up for their respective seasons on and off the courts by participating in AFH U workshops, engaging in service. A few teams from Southern University and LSU have already started off their year in service in late August.
Southern Baseball kicked off the school year by volunteering with Habitat For Humanity. Student athletes assisted with the pre-build of one site as well as the landscaping of another home.
“It was a pleasure working with Southern Baseball today. They were full of enthusiasm, team work, and had an amazing work ethic. They supported each other throughout the day and you don’t see that in kids anymore.” -Jim Quick, Habitat for Humanity Volunteer
“Thank you Southern Baseball team for coming to landscape my house. I’ve been waiting for a while and with their huge help it’s ready for the fall. To come out to the site this morning and see so many young men excited to volunteer brought tears to my eyes.” -Laura Pierce, Habitat for Humanity homeowner
The ladies of Southern Soccer, Southern Volleyball, LSU Gymnastics, and LSU Volleyball also made visits to local schools to get kids excited about the upcoming school year and encourage them to stay physically active.
“At Louisiana Key Academy, we helped educate kids of what it takes to be a LSU gymnast; perseverance and to never give up! In sports and in the classroom, we can face challenges, but with hard work you can achieve anything.” – McKenna Kelley, LSU Gymnastics
We encourage all of our AFH U student athletes to connect with us soon to schedule workshops, get support connecting to area nonprofits or schools and to share the great work that you are doing in communities.
Here are some quick tips for successful service visits:
- Coordinate with our AFH U team to identify opportunities for workshops or service during off days.
- Communicate with your team or other teams for a group volunteer session.
- Connect with other teams on campus to collaborate on service events.
- Share your service with the AFH U team or on social media to help elevate the work of the nonprofit or school!
- Make sure you use our hashtag #AFHU and tag @athletesforhope so we can share it as well.
- Motivate and encourage others to give back-your followers, friends and family may be motivated to serve based on your example.
What’s New:
We look forward to celebrating the work of all our AFH U student athletes through a monthly AFH U “Athlete of the Month” and sharing with our network of athletes and partners. We are getting AFH U service shirts to easily identify student athletes in the community, and identifying service opportunities each month so student athletes know ahead of time what types of volunteering is available. We are excited to see the service opportunities that all of our AFH U student athletes do this year and wish them all a great 2018-2019 school season!
For more information about our AFH U program, please go to our website or contact Suzanne at Spotts@athletesforhope.org