Clarksville, TN – For student-athletes in college it’s more than just about the sports that they play and classes they attend, it’s about learning to giving back to the community and citizenship.
Austin Peay State University’s Athletic Department and its student-athletes continue to show that they live up to that standard and be a good neighbor and supporter of the Clarksville community.
This group provides insight on the student-athlete experience and offers input on rules, regulations and policies that affect student-athletes, while also participating in community service projects to promote a positive image of the athletic department.
Among some of the events highlighting the efforts by this group and Governors athletes are ‘Govs Give Back’, that in conjunction with the Austin Peay Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, Manna Café and Second Harvest Food Bank help feed families in need.
The event, which began five years ago, has grown from feeding a dozen or so families to over 300 with the group raising close to $4,000 to help make this possible.
SAAC also participates in projects such as ‘Read Across America’, where student-athletes go out to different schools, or to the public library, to celebrate reading and its importance to elementary school age students.
In that vein, student-athletes have also gone to schools and talked to the kid there about the importance of getting a good education, setting goals and with hard work you can overcome any adversity.
These are just the beginning of some of the events and projects that the student-athletes participate in during the school year.
But it’s not just the student-athletes that give back to the community, with the departments’ coaches and administration also doing their part.
A little over a week ago, Austin Peay athletics director Derek van der Merwe a part of a dais – that also had several political and military leaders — at a listen session at Fort Campbell to help make the powers that be just how important the army base is to the area and how the fort should be kept at current levels, or suffer minimal cuts in light of the impending draw down proposed for the military.
But this wasn’t the first time this year that the athletic department has shown its support for the solders that have served at Fort Campbell, with the football team having worn camouflage uniforms in their game versus Tennessee State University back on November 8th of last year – which included putting the Fort Campbell unit nicknames on the back of the jerseys.
The uniforms were later auctioned off to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, bring in over $8,000 for the cause.
But it could also be as simple as a student-athlete taking a little bit of his or her time to stop and say hi too, or sign a poster, for a little kid who wants to be them sometime down the road.
These are just some of the things the Austin Peay athletic department and its student-athletes do to be a positive and contributing part of the Clarksville community.
