The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) of Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) is attempting to capitalize off the positive momentum of the Special Olympics event by planning more community service activities on campus.
“We want to get the community involved and get athletes to be part of the community around ENC,” notes vice president of SAAC, Josue Basilis.
Getting the community involved was also SAAC’s reason for organizing the Special Olympics event, a tournament for children with intellectual disabilities.
The next step for SAAC is another community service project. The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) gave all of its schools blankets that the SAAC members are going to cut, decorate, and donate to a local children’s hospital.
“We plan [events] as it goes,” Basilis explains. “As the event [Special Olympics] goes by, we are going to plan Division III week.”
Division III Week is a promotion by the NCAA to celebrate Division III athletes that takes place from April 1 through April 7. According to the NCAA, “Every Division III school and conference office is encouraged to conduct a type of outreach activity that falls into of the three categories: academic accomplishment; athletic experience; or leadership/community service/campus involvement.” Last year, for instance, every ENC athletics team took over the official ENC Athletics Instagram page for 24 hours.
Moreover, SAAC will organize a final event at the end of the school year. Last year, it was a BBQ for all student-athletes. This year, Interim Vice President of Student Development Brad Zarges intends for the celebration to be campus-wide and not just for student-athletes. According to Basilis, SAAC was thinking about putting on a campus-wide competitive event.
SAAC meets sporadically throughout the semester under the supervision of Toni Kabilian, the interim ENC athletic director. For more information on SAAC, visit the ENC Athletics page.