MASCAC SAAC Service Project A Success

BUZZARDS BAY, MA, April 1, 2007 - The Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) coordinated and participated in a project centered on the themes of learning, leadership and community service. 

Student-athletes from each of the eight MASCAC institutions researched ideas and then created a 10-minute Power Point presentation of what they would like the conference SAAC to do for a community service project. 

In the fall, each college presented their project to the group and then the student-athletes voted on which of the projects they would like to participate in. When the votes were collected, Massachusetts Maritime Academy's nursing home community service project was the winner.

There were 23 MASCAC SAAC representatives in attendance, including four SAAC advisors.  The group met at noon at Mass. Maritime.  Two Mass. Maritime MASCAC SAAC members led the group through an informative tour of their ship and answered questions from the visiting student-athletes. 

Afterwards, the student-athletes shared some pizza and socialized in the ship's mess deck.  Then the MASCAC SAAC headed out to the nursing home to visit and decorate treats with about 30 residents of the Cape Cod Nursing Home in Buzzards Bay.

At the end of the day, the student-athletes left feeling energized from their community service and having had a chance to socialize and build friendships off the court and playing fields with student-athletes from other MASCAC schools, in addition to their educational tour of the Massachusetts Maritime training ship. 

As one student-athlete who participated said, "It was great to be there yesterday! The tour of the ship was awesome and the elderly were so friendly!" 

The nursing home residents enjoyed sharing desserts and interesting conversation and attention from the MASCAC student-athletes.  

"This was an excellent opportunity for the MASCAC student-athletes to give back to the community as well as learn about presentation and event management skills," MASCAC Commissioner Angela Baumann stated.