Coach’s Corner: Hamilton Volleyball in the Community

Hello Friends of Hamilton Volleyball,

Community service is something that isimportant to the Hamilton College philosophy of promoting the personal growth of their students. It is also something that members of the Hamilton volleyball team are excited to participate in. Each one of our players is involved in some form of community service, either on campus or in the surrounding community.

This newsletter focuses on a few of the projects our team has recently been working on. This semester the team has been tutoring middle school students at Clinton Middle School. This is an ongoing community service effort, which the team organized through HAVOC (Hamilton Association of Volunteering, Outreach and Charity). Each player goes at least once a week to tutor the students in whatever area of study they are having difficulty in. The team is really enjoying their time there and has brought back many funny anecdotes. In addition to volunteering at the local middle school, the team and I have participated in two great community service projects this month. The first is “Hamilton Athletes Against Hunger” (HAAH), which is an initiative started by Corbin Brown ‘11 of the Hamilton men’s lacrosse team. The second is “America’s Greatest Heart Run & Walk”, which raised money to help combat heart disease.

If you have questions about the projects we have been involved in or want to find out ways to become involved please feel free to contact me at ereding@hamilton.edu.

America’s Greatest Heart Run & Walk

On a bright and sunny Saturday morning in March the Hamilton volleyball team along with hundreds of other Hamilton faculty, staff, and students participated in America’s Greatest Heart Run & Walk. The event was organized by the American Heart Association and the money raised went to fight the nation’s number one killer: heart disease and stroke. Happily, the event raised $338,945 with over 8,000 participants either walking or running!

Our team participated in the five mile walk and was accompanied by Hamilton’s mascot Al Ham. He was nice enough to stop and take a picture with us on our walk to the finish line. It was a really fun event, which included local radio stations setting up DJ booths along the route so we could dance our way to the finish.

From left to right: Kristen Selden ‘09, Rachel Irizarry ‘12, Lisa Olszewski ‘11, Alex Singh ‘11, Al Ham, Jo Fier ‘11, Annie Scott ‘11, Coach Reding

Hamilton Athletes Against Hunger

During the fall semester of 2008, Corbin Brown ‘11 got the idea to do something productive with all the leftover food from Hamilton’s dining halls. That semester he organized Hamilton Against Hunger (HAH). Corbin was able to link up a local food bank with one of the dining halls on campus. Organizing the help of his friends each day they would pack up all the left over food and leave it in the dining hall’s refrigerator to be picked up by the food bank. As Corbin thought about the future of HAH he realized that he had an excellent opportunity to extend his project to the other organization he was passionate about on campus: athletics. As a member of the men’s lacrosse team, Corbin knew that there was the potential to serve even more people if he could get the athletics teams involved. At the beginning of the spring semester of 2009 Corbin approached all the head coaches and asked for their assistance. Realizing what an excellent project this is many of the coaches enthusiastically signed up their teams to help, which is how the project was renamed “Hamilton Athletes Against Hunger” (HAAH). Each week one of the teams goes to McEwen dining hall and packs up all the left over food after each meal. Enough teams are involved that the entire semester has been accounted for with plenty of volunteers to work each shift. There is no telling where the project will go from here, but we are all excited to continue our support!

An Interview with Corbin Brown*How long has this project been going on?It has been going on since February 15 (with the weekly rotation of teams), and an additional two weeks prior. How did Hamilton Athletes Against Hunger (HAAH) get started?During the first semester, I was eating in Commons and saw how much food they threw out, so I did a little investigating to see how/ if the extra food was being used. When I realized that nothing was being done, I decided to do something about it! Where does the food go?The food is picked up three times a week by the Community Food Bank of Greater Utica.Do you have any plans to expand the scope of HAAH?My goal for next year is to spread this program to include McEwen and Commons, and hopefully be able to say that every team has contributed. Any interesting facts?I have seen them (the Community Food Bank of Greater Utica) pick up a few times, and we have filled a Chevrolet Astro mini van on several occasions.

*Corbin is a sophomore on the men’s lacrosse team and founder of Hamilton Athletes Against Hunger.

Hamilton Volleyball Team packing up the food! Yea! We’re having fun!