The America East Student-Athlete Advisory Committee recently lent a helping hand to Community Servings and the Pine Street Inn. On Friday, September 30, the conference SAAC divided into two groups of nine student-athletes to provide assistance to both needy organizations.
Community Servings is a service that provides free, home-delivered meals throughout eastern Massachusetts to people homebound with acute life-threatening illnesses, who are unable to shop or cook for themselves. Each week, Community Servings delivers 3,125 lunches and 3,125 dinners to 625 individuals and families. Clients have diets created to fit their medical and appetite needs to ensure that the have the most appropriate meals. It takes 750 volunteer hours to prepare and deliver these meals each week.
SAAC members visited Community Servings and volunteered their time to this process. Through the course of the night, members helped by washing and cutting vegetables, packaging dinners, labeling meals and other general maintenance tasks that need to be accomplished for successful delivery of meals. The staff at Community Servings was animated and fun to work with, making for a very worthwhile experience
Founded in 1984, Pine Street Inn is a nonprofit organization committed to men, women, and children in need of shelter, sustenance, and the basic moral and material supports necessary to lead a dignified and stable life. Pine Street Inn's daytime street outreach program offers advocacy, medical and psychiatric services to homeless individuals who rarely or never seek shelter. The team works to build trusting relationships with men and women who often struggle with mental illness and addiction.
Every evening Pine Street Inn serves a public dinner to over 300 people. The America East SAAC assisted in the preparation, serving and cleaning details that were associated with the evening's meal.
Student-Athlete Participants:
Albany - Brad Daniels (baseball), Jillian Sherman (track & field)
Binghamton - Nick Tillman (track & field), Lauren Verrusio (softball)
Boston U. - Lidija Breznikar (swimming & diving), Mike McGrath (swimming & diving)
Hartford - Shaun Kiviat (lacrosse)
Maine - Sarah Holmsten (swimming & diving), Keith Corey (track & field)
UMBC - Kristen Moorby (swimming & diving), Mike Housman (basketball)
New Hampshire - Danielle Clark (basketball), Jesse Kearns (track & field)
Stony Brook - Tricia Palmeri (swimming & diving), Brendan Callahan (lacrosse)
Vermont - Chris Marsh (baseball), Molly Gray (skiing)