By Lauren Chapman
Within the last year, the Northeast Conference has added a new SAAC liaison and Director of Compliance. However, it seems that our conference SAAC is continuing to move in a positive direction, even with all of this change. We are trying to increase knowledge and communication of our group through media, as well as creating a newsletter to send out to all schools in the conference. These positive improvements will continue to get better as time progresses.
Also for the second year, we held a conference wide “penny wars” to raise money for the Cancer Recover Foundation. The foundation raises money and buys toys for children suffering from cancer. Each institution made up teams to compete. At my institution, Fairleigh Dickinson University, we made the teams, boys versus girls. Other institutions set up competition between each athletics team, or students and faculty.
More than just a competition within each institution, but also between each institution in the conference to see which institution could raise the most money. This year, our conference raised significantly more money than the last year, with a total of $3,270.48.
We delivered the check to the Cancer Recovery Foundation, at our annual spring SAAC meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It brought overwhelming happiness to the owner of the foundation. It’s a great organization that puts smiles on children’s faces in such a difficult in during their lives. In addition to presenting the check, we also went to their warehouse and packed boxes of toys for almost three hours. The toys we packed went to over 2,000 children all over the country. It’s fair to say that after the community service project we all felt empowered.
Unfortunately, this was my last conference SAAC meeting. My term on National SAAC will be ending in June. We will have a new Northeast Conference representative by July. I’ve truly enjoyed this experience, and I am thankful for the chance I was given to make a difference in my conference and in Division I. One of the greatest lessons this experience has taught me is to take advantage of the opportunities that are given to you, and anyone can make a difference, no matter how big or small your voice is.
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