BLUE ASH, Ohio – Members from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) recently volunteered at Matthew 25: Ministries as part of the league’s annual spring meetings.
Representatives from seven of the league’s institutions were present, including participation from incoming 2016 G-MAC member Malone University.
Matthew 25: Ministries is an international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization helping the poorest of the poor locally, regionally, nationally and internationally regardless of race, creed or political persuasion.
By rescuing and reusing products from major corporations and manufacturers, Matthew 25: Ministries provides basic necessities, nutritional supplements, educational materials, micro-enterprise supplies and disaster relief across the US and worldwide.
Inside the massive facility was a Prasco food-processing center, countless bins of items for sorting and plenty of volunteers donating their time for a great cause. Prasco is the pharmaceutical company that hosts the G-MAC Baseball Championship at Prasco Park in Mason.
Before helping, the G-MAC SAAC was escorted on a detailed tour about how Matthew 25: Ministries touches countless people from all over the world. From earthquakes, to floods, to tornadoes, the organization has an undeniable impact.
The tour guide demonstrated how 1,5000 basic plastic bags from Wal-Mart, Target, etc., could be transformed into mats with 60 hours of manpower from a volunteer. Items loaded on large palates were said to be the length of three Golden Gate Bridges or 178 Empire State Buildings in a documentary video.
The G-MAC SAAC put on white uniforms and pitched in by filtering out cans of paint that could be salvaged for better use. Crushing cans, scraping out hardened paint and pouring into color-coded funnels, were part of the morning’s activities.
The group also collected items to present to Tender Mercies, marking the culmination of a year-long gathering process of hotel toiletry items from student-athlete road trips.
This successful endeavor is called the Athletes Collecting Toiletries in Service (A.C.T.S.), a G-MAC SAAC initiative.
G-MAC SAAC member Leah Leshnack (Ursuline) was able to provide a report on what the group was able to accomplish. G-MAC SAAC president Jes Hicks also addressed the G-MAC Joint Council to report on the committee’s business meeting.
Hicks represents the conference at the national level, where student-athletes have a voice and vote on the floor at the NCAA Convention.
Members from the G-MAC SAAC present at the community service project included the following: Ursuline’s Hicks/Leshnack, Taylor England and Sarah Mersing from Alderson Broaddus, Katelyn Atkinson from Trevecca Nazarene, John Sandlas and Lauren Jackson from Cedarville, Jon Zimmerly and Lorne Strausbaugh from Malone, Sarah Swenson and De’Vonta Moffitt from Kentucky Wesleyan and Danielle Norton and Forrest Williamson from Davis & Elkins.