Students contribute more than 3,000 hours of community service
FPU press release
Fresno Pacific University has been named co-winner of the Pacific West Conference Community Engagement Award after the Sunbirds set a record for volunteer service hours.
The award, given annually to the institution that best served its community during the academic year, was shared with fellow PacWest institution Notre Dame de Namur.
“I want to congratulate all of our member schools because this was the first year that all 13 institutions submitted nominations for this important award,” says PacWest Commissioner Bob Hogue. “The crowded field made it especially challenging for our review committee. Ultimately, the efforts by Fresno Pacific and Notre Dame de Namur stood out, and they are extremely deserving of this recognition.”
The PacWest Community Engagement Award annually recognizes outstanding community service and projects performed by a PacWest member institution’s Student Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC). A panel reviews the nominations submitted by each school and votes for the best programs.
FPU student-athletes and the SAAC volunteered 3,150 combined hours during the 2013-14 season. This included 2,228 hours of service outreach as well as an additional 922 hours from engagement events that brought groups to campus.
All 16 FPU teams were involved in multiple community service projects. The list includes volunteering in public schools, including a high school special education classroom, hosting foster children and their family at a home basketball game, adopting a local park with the goal of improving conditions, putting on sports clinics, packaging food for the hungry and medical supplies for medical ministries and assisting with the West Coast Mennonite Central Committee relief sale.
FPU student-athletes also raised $4,700 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, ranking second out of the 13 PacWest schools, and hosted Sunbird Sports Day for community kids (pictured above).
The full list of FPU team service projects is at: fpuathletics.com/news/2014/6/3/GEN_0603143949.aspx
For a video of FPU's community service, click: youtube.com/watch?v=30sL1h86POo
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