SAAC Mission:
The mission of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is to enhance the total student-athlete experience by promoting opportunity for all student-athletes, protecting student-athlete welfare, and fostering a positive student-athlete image, while maintaining the tenants of the rules and regulations of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) and Division III philosophy.
MASCAC SAAC HOSTS CHILDREN'S FIELD DAY (APRIL 5, 2009)
For the past four years, members of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) from the eight Massachusetts State College Athletics Conference(MASCAC) schools have come together to pool ideas for a community service project.
This year Westfield State earned the honor of hosting the event with its innovative idea of incorporating sports with children.
"We chose this because it was something that we could relate to them with," said Westfield State track and field athlete Marlee Berg, president of the MASCAC SAAC. "Being active is really important, especially today when most kids are sitting in front of a TV."
Westfield decided to team up with the Unified Sports Program (USP) to host the field day. USP, located in Westfield, focuses on kids with disabilities and teaches them that having friends who are different is an essential life skill.
Massachusetts Maritime Senior Woman's Administrator Linda Letourneau, along with senior Heather Mallory, junior Kaitlin O'Donnell (a member of the NCAA Division III National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) and sophomores Jon White and Neil Patnaude, represented the Buccaneers at this year's event.
"Our goal is social inclusion through sports. We teach kids through sports that ability doesn't matter," said Steve Berube, USP founder and program director. "We make the special needs kids do the same thing as normal kids."
The field day consisted of six stations including basketball, baseball, frisbee, hockey, and track. There were 45 kids who participated in the field day. Approximately 35 student-athletes from the eight MASCAC colleges assisted with the event.
"The kids learn just as much as kids with disabilities. We want all kids to learn that having friends that are different is a good thing," said Berube. "It might take us some years but were getting there."
The effort of planning such a large event was worth it after seeing the smiling faces of the kids who participated in the three-hour event.
"The USP runs a great program for the community which integrates students together. They are very organized and easy to work with," said MASCAC Commissioner Angela Baumann. "We were very pleased with the outcome of the event and the feedback we received."
MASCAC SUPPORTS THE TROOPS!
BRIDGEWATER, MA, April 8, 2008 - For the past two years the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) has created and implemented a community service project to give back to the community.
Community service has been an important theme for all eight state colleges student-athletes both at the college and conference level. Nancy Bals, Westfield Associate Athletic Director said "community service is an essential part of the MASCAC SAAC and it was great to see the student-athletes work together for the community".
Last year the MASCAC SAAC met at Mass Maritime Academy and spent quality time with residents from a senior center. That day meant a lot to both the seniors and the student-athletes.
This year's project theme was from Bridgewater State titled "Support the Troops". The project included collecting items on each campus and working with an organization called CarePacks, for the purpose of putting together care packages for the deserving soldiers in Iraq.
The MASCAC SAAC worked all spring gathering up items to send to the troops in Iraq. On Sunday, April 6, student-athletes from all eight MASCAC Colleges met at Bridgewater State College with organizers from CarePacks from Weymouth, Massachusetts to pack up about 275 boxes which will be sent across the world to the brave military men and women serving in Iraq.
CarePacks is a non-profit organization that is staffed and managed entirely by volunteers that are dedicated to sending care packages to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Founded in 2004, CarePacks' goal is to provide these soldiers with supplies to help improve their morale, mental health, and quality of life, and to remind soldiers that they are remembered by people "back home."
The MASCAC student-athletes care packages contained items with food, personal care items, books and more Each package also contained at least one letter from a college's SAAC.
Many of the men and women serving over in Iraq are about the same age as the student-athletes going to school and competing at the eight state colleges. One of the volunteers commented "although you may not agree with the war you have to support the troops". Student-athletes with friends or families serving were able to pack the boxes and include a hand written note in the CarePacks.
Many of the packages went to service people that haven't received packages. The packages should arrive in 7-10 days and are sure to bring some joy and comfort to the soldiers that are putting their lives on the line. At the end of the day the student-athletes met and brainstormed about ways to improve the sportsmanship across the MASCAC.
