FREDONIA, N.Y. — Fredonia Blue Devil student-athletes took part in four community service projects last week.
The annual autumn campus blood drive was organized by the men’s basketball team. Members of the team solicited people on campus and worked the registration table inside the Williams Center last Wednesday and Thursday for the Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennyslvania and Western New York. All pints of blood collected will be used locally. Kathy Hastings of the Blood Bank reported 79 donors with 68 units of blood collected “That’s 204 lives saved and mproved,” he wrote. “(The) drive alone saved Brooks Memorial $12,444.”
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams gathered last Friday to clean Wright Park Beach in Dunkirk. Nearly 30 student-athletes participated and collected 1,196 cigarette butts; 2,243 pieces of plastic (shards, bottles, etc.); 463 pieces of plastic foam; 99 pieces of paper or cardboard; 27 pieces of metal; 166 bottle caps; 44 cans, six shoes; and 144 miscellaneous items.
For the seventh straight September, members of the men’s hockey team did odd jobs at the homes of area senior citizens. The chores included window washing, gardening, trimming, landscaping, and general yard work. Blue Devil team captains Mitch Kaufmann and Ryan Wilkinson went to the home one area woman for the fourth straight year, and brought flowers to her this year.
Over $3,100 was raised Friday and Saturday during the Fredonia Soccer Cancer Awareness event. Parents of the men’s and women’s soccer teams solicited and donated a variety of items for a silent raffle, resulting in nearly 40 baskets. Women from the softball and lacrosse teams braved first heat, then rain to collect gain entry fees and sell raffle and 50-50 tickets during the two-day Blue Devil Clarion Hotel Classic. In addition, Lake Shore Savings Bank made a donation of $1,500 toward the fight against prostate and ovarian cancer. The proceeds were donated to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo.
