CINCINNATI – On October 21, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee sorted toys, organized food, and helped clean at the Healing Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The participating student-athletes gave up some of their free time to assist and serve the community of Cincinnati during the Fall SAAC conference meetings. Some student-athletes built shelves in the warehouse to sort and store toys for the upcoming holiday season, while other student-athletes helped clean the facilities and sort food for distribution.
Kicking off the SAAC conference meetings, the student-athletes took advantage of the waterpark attached to the hotel in which was hosting the meeting in the Greater Cincinnati area. They had time to socialize, relax, and enjoy the waterpark’s variety of slides and pools. The following morning is when the SAAC participated in the community service project, which was followed by the afternoon’s business session where they reviewed proposals and allowed for discussion regarding the 2013 NCAA Legislative proposals and grid completion process.
"The G-MAC SAAC came together as a group of representatives focused on fostering a relationship between student-athletes, NCAA Division II, and the local community,” commented Cedarville’s Laura Farleman, the G-MAC National SAAC Representative. “In particular, the efforts of the conference SAAC at The Healing Center has inspired the committee to begin an initiative to help the Healing Center meet the needs of the people in the Cincinnati area. With the release of 2014 legislative proposals and the institutional legislative grids, the G-MAC SAAC took full advantage of the opportunity to not only the represent the student-athlete voice, but also discuss and deliberate each proposal efficiently. I am proud to say that the G-MAC has made steady progress within Division II led by the efforts of our SAAC team."
The group also discussed the possibility of pairing with Team IMPACT, hot topics on campus, G-MAC SAAC expectations, the SAAC newsletter, and the SAAC webpage on G-MACsports.com.
“The direction that the G-MAC SAAC is going is positive for our league and for our institutions,” said G-MAC Assistant Commissioner for Compliance Angela Tressel. “Our National SAAC Representative provides strong leadership to our league and the initiatives our student-athletes support promote the G-MAC SAAC mission and goals. It certainly is an exciting time to be part of the G-MAC SAAC program.”