Generous Jaspers win hair-raising recognition

For some schools, being number one in the country is something that usually comes with a shrug and a smile. For the Dukes, the Kentuckys and the Louisvilles of the world like, being number one is something they strive for year in and year out.

But at smaller institutions, being number one in anything is something rarely—if ever—seen. Take Manhattan College, for instance. The school was established in 1853 and since then has seen one national title in its existence – capturing the 1973 NCAA Indoor Track Championship and setting a world record in the distance medley relay.

But now, 43 years later, Manhattan can boast of being the best once again. Not for anything they did on the basketball court or soccer pitch, but something that can be considered vastly more important than a simple game. Last week Manhattan College was named by the NCAA as the national leaders in community service for volunteer work performed by Jaspers’ student-athletes and the school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

As Sinatra would say, “King of the Hill. Top of the heap.”

“Last year we wound up second in the nation so we were all striving for number one this year,” said Madison Arndt, a junior track and field team member who is also the school’s SAAC president as well as the president of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Association’s SAAC. “We wanted to be the best and we really kicked it off this semester as every team on campus was completing community service left and right. The student-athletes here really want to do community service. So when we got the news that we did finish first in the competition we were off-our-feet excited. It’s something to brag about because it’s not an easy task. We’re all just so happy. There were cheers and hugs and we’re all hoping we can continue to be number one in the country next semester.”

Arndt said giving back to the community was ingrained in her during her high school years and she was excited to continue to help others once arriving at Manhattan.

“I went to a Catholic high school and I was really interested in helping out and making my athletic experience here better,” Arndt said. “So what I did was I asked my coach if I could be a part SAAC. That was last year when I was a sophomore and that’s when I learned about SAAC and what they do.”

What SAAC does, exactly, is look to the community around the school to see where help is needed and what kind of aid is required and then the SAAC executive board – with input from all members – plans its agenda accordingly.

Just some of the projects Manhattan’s SAAC was involved with this past semester ranged from staging a St. Baldrick’s “Brave a Shave for Kids with Cancer” fundraiser, where participants line up sponsors who will donate money if the Manhattan student will shave his or her head. The SAAC also created a “Cards for a Cause” project in which Manhattan student-athletes created holiday cards for nursing home residents as well as soldiers based overseas. They also collected almost 200 pounds of food in a Thanksgiving food drive which was donated to the Mercy Center in the Bronx as well as assembling a group of 350 Jaspers student-athletes who participated in the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides for Cure” 5K walk in Central Park.

Take that, Duke and Kentucky and Louisville.

“The St. Baldrick’s “Brave the Shave,” that was an idea brought up at one of our SAAC meetings a year ago. So last year was our first year doing that and it was a success. So we really go off of successes and failures. If they work we’ll do them again and if they don’t we’ll find something else that we can do and give our time to. But this year there were 10 shave-ees after we had six last year and this year one of them was a woman. She shaved her head and it was amazing. We doubled our raised funds this year from $4,000 to $8,000 and hopefully next year we’ll go up again.”

Alison Fitzgerald, Manhattan’s Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Life Skills and also the moderator for SAAC, said there is a specific way for each school to keep track of their community service efforts.

“The way it works is that every community service event that is available is put in a file as an upcoming event and then student-athletes can access those through the Helper Helper app and see events that are coming up and what they want to commit to,” Fitzgerald said. “The hours then aren’t validated until after the student-athletes have attended the events. So as an example, we did our St. Baldrick’s event at Draddy Gym and that lasted about two hours. So when the students came we had them all check in and then at the end of the event we gave them a code so they are validated that way. It’s all tracked by hours.”

There are no recruiting sessions to get student-athletes to work for the SAAC. It’s mostly a word-of-mouth proposition but there are never any shortages of students looking to give a helping hand.

“We depend a lot on our student-athletes because this is an advisory committee for them and by them so it’s important that they take ownership of it and really communicate with their teammates about what SAAC is about,” Fitzgerald said. “SAAC is really a way for student athletes to voice any concerns and really to improve their experience on campus. So it serves that function but they also serve as leaders in community service as well.”

Arndt, the captain of the women’s track and field team, said Manhattan’s SAAC has grown enormously since she arrived on campus as a freshman.

“In my freshman year SAAC was established but we weren’t making as big a difference as we are now,” Arndt said. “But over the past two years SAAC has developed into this group that people actually want to be a part of. Now we’re making national athletic news for being number one in the country for community service. Two years ago no one would have thought that would have happened. Honestly it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me at Manhattan College, being part of a group that cares about the community around me and who cares about bettering the student-athlete experience. It makes my time here as an athlete more enjoyable than I ever thought. It’s been the best decision I’ve made, joining SAAC, and it’s really paid off.”

Fitzgerald, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin, said she has had a lot of fun ribbing friends at her alma mater and other larger schools about how little Manhattan is sitting at the top of the NCAA community service world despite an enrollment of just over 3,000 students.

“Oh definitely,” Fitzgerald said. “We have some staff here with ties to Louisville and as an undergrad I was at the University of Wisconsin and both of those schools were also on the list. So it’s been fun to say to my counterparts at Wisconsin or some of the other staff members here, ‘Look at all the schools on this list and we came out number one.’”

Some of the other brand-name schools on the Top 20 list include Rutgers University, the University of Miami, George Washington University and Clemson University.

Fitzgerald said the Manhattan student-athletes get as much from performing community service as they do from performing on the playing field.

“Some of the big projects we get involved with helps with that cross-team camaraderie,” Fitzgerald said. “I see a lot of the student-athletes getting a lot closer and not just staying within their own teams and they all have a great time. Everything that we have done, I can’t remember them not being happy after it.”

The Jaspers will be looking to defend their new title once the spring semester commences at the end of January. One of the projects already scheduled is what they call “The Jasper Ball.” It’s a money-raising event with the proceeds going to help children in the same vein as the Make A Wish Foundation.

“It’s a dance that we hold after the end of the year banquet and all the money that is raised from that goes to “Give Kids the World,’ which is an organization out of Disney,” Fitzgerald said. “It funds trips for kids who have terminal cancer and it’s just for Disney. So that’s our big event in the spring.”

In the meantime Arndt and her executive board will make plans for other events and projects with an eye toward helping their community while perhaps also keeping their new crown as tops in the nation.

So how does it feel to be Number One in all the land?

“It feels great,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve been bragging a lot.”