Goldey-Beacom College Athletics Wins CACC Community Engagement Award

GBC Cares | 6/25/2019 12:00:00 AM

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Another display of Goldey-Beacom's standout efforts in community service again was on display with the school winning the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Community Engagement Award.

This award is annually presented to one institution that best promotes the community engagement initiative adopted by Division II. This award takes into consideration one activity and is judged based on the type of outreach program, student-athlete involvement, athletic team involvement and athletic department involvement.

The honor comes just five months after the College grabbed third place for the 2019 NCAA Division II Award of Excellence. Goldey-Beacom received $1,000 for the honor at the NCAA Convention in Orlando with the intention for future community engagement events.

Goldey-Beacom's honor entitled "Veterans of The Summit: Stories of Service" comes from its work with The Summit, a retirement community in nearby Hockessin, DE which houses veterans of the military. With the help of "GBC Cares," the department's community service arm, this is the fourth academic year in which the College's student-athletes have volunteered their time and talents to provide help, entertainment and friendship to many who served in the United States military.

Through the work of Associate Director of Athletics/Compliance Director Jeremy Benoit, GBC Cares in 2018 worked with The Summit to transcribe the lives of the veterans and how it would be presented. Those involved included members of our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the general student-athlete body, Lightning Studio (a multimedia student organization), GBC Lit (a literary student organization) and members of the Athletics and Development staffs. The primary organizers of the project were Lorenzo Gama from Men's Soccer, Geoff Stone from Lightning Studio and Benoit.

Many of the aforementioned took part in conversations with 39 of the veterans which not only discussed their stories, but fostered friendships, created memories and left everyone with a warm feeling in their heart along with new knowledge in their brain. The work of everyone was transcribed into a book with stories and pictures that was released this spring.

Those wishing to purchase the book can click https://gbcathletics.picaboo.com and enter "gbc" for the password.

This marked the second time in four years Goldey-Beacom was a finalist for the NCAA Division II Award of Excellence. Each finalist, one representing each Division II conference and an independent representative, received $500 for its event or activity from 2018 that exemplifies any of the six Division II attributes: learning, balance, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, passion and service.

"We could not be more proud of our students," Benoit said. "I brought this idea to our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Lightning Studio last year and they hit the ground running. Not only getting involved in the outside community, but using other student organizations, departments and faculty as resources was important. This project is the essence of community engagement."

This warmth continued November 9 when The Summit invited all from the College to its Veterans Day celebration. Many from the College ate breakfast with the veterans and then the student-athletes ushered them to their seats for the program, which included several speeches and a live band that played the music from the different branches of the military. The relationships the GBC students built with these very important people has blossomed into not just a service activity, but a friendship that will continue to grow for years.

Goldey-Beacom in 2015 also was a finalist for the award thanks to "Bras for the Cause," the College's work in helping raise money, awareness and collecting bras during breast cancer awareness month. GBC worked with 93.7 WSTW FM and the Wake-Up Crew to collect these bras with a goal of 700 in mind, easily surpassed with 1,549 obtained that was made to into a huge pink ribbon.

Recent work by GBC Cares includes, but is not limited to, celebrating National Women and Girls in Sport Day at a local elementary school, the tennis team helping with Tennithon and the Delaware Wheelchair Tennis Championships, the softball team helping with both the Thanksgiving collection for the New Castle County EMS Division Paramedics and Toys for Tots and both baseball and softball taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Run.

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