At last night’s Binghamton University men’s basketball game, there were several events going on, including a book drive and “Sportsmanship Night.” These events were organized by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
SAAC President Bob Nolte explained SAAC’s mission.
“The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee oversees student-athletes’ community service and well-being,” he said. “We represent the student-athletes’ voice to the administration. We’ve been doing different stuff throughout the years; last year we did St. Jude’s, this year we’re volunteering at a soup kitchen in Downtown Binghamton on Sundays, and we’re working on some other stuff as well.”
Last night’s events focused on helping out the youth in the Binghamton area. Adina Fischer, the SAAC vice president, discussed the book drive and who else was pitching in.
“We [had] a book drive for the Binghamton Boys and Girls Club of America,” she said. “The Penguin Publishers donated books, the Fenton Free Library donated books, RiverRead bookstore donated books, and some student-athletes donated books, as well as the people coming in.”
Sportsmanship Night was an effort to get younger athletes to recognize the importance of sportsmanship, both in and out of competition. This was done by having young athletes spend time with some athletes here at Binghamton University.
“The America East Stars program is a conference-wide initiative to promote sportsmanship among all America East schools,” Nolte explained.
What we did is we brought in a group of local Catholic Youth Organization basketball players, and we [had] a bunch of athletes sitting with them, hanging out with them during the game, and then gave them a little speech about what it means to be a good sport, and what it means to play by the rules. Then they all got goodie bags from Bearcat Athletics.”
SAAC also has been making an effort to raise support for the American Cancer Society. A generous donation was made during the intermission of last night’s game.
“We’ve been doing our pink campaign for the American Cancer Society,” Nolte said. “A little over $5,000 [was] presented to them at halftime, so we’re pretty excited about that too.”