Athletes give back to community through Christmas presents for kids
“I loved it when people knew we were students at Allen and stopped us in Walmart to ask what we were doing. Because I got to say, ‘We’re Christmas shopping for our adopt-a-child kids,” said Bri Smedley, a freshman from Thayer on the Allen County Community College softball team.
More than 50 ACCC student-athletes weren’t competing on a court, field or track last week. They were Christmas shopping and wrapping presents for others.
The Allen County athletic teams found a way to give back to the community which supports them each year at games. Teams decided how many children they could “adopt” by purchasing presents. They didn’t just give money; they also chose the gifts from wish lists.
“The college athletic director, Randy Weber, asked me if I knew of any local agency needing help this season,” said Nicole Desmarteau, resource family officer at TFI Family Services.
“We have foster youth in Allen and Anderson counties for people to help provide Christmas presents for each year.”
Desmarteau, wife of ACCC head soccer coach Doug Desmarteau, said the college coaches decided to work with TFI; 25 foster children were selected.
“It’s a good way for our athletes to become involved with the community and give back,” said Jessica Peters, head volleyball coach and assistant athletic director. “Each team decided how many children they could shop for and they were given names and ages plus the wish lists.”
Peters said the college contacted Iola Walmart to arrange an evening for the student-athletes to come out and shop. That was Dec. 9. Then it was back to the college gymnasium for a giant wrapping session.
Bryce Williams, a sophomore outfielder for the baseball team, said the team has four captains and each one took a child to shop for at Walmart.
“As a team we had four kids — ages 17, 16, 4 and 3 — so we split up and shopped for the kids. We selected the top item on the parents’ list then with money left over we grabbed several items off the kids’ list,” Williams said.
Williams said it was fun shopping but the wrapping was adventure. He said there was a lot of sharing of “good wrappers” among the athletes at the wrapping session.
“We as student-athletes have few options to help out in the community. This was exciting for us on the baseball team to directly help making children’s Christmas a little brighter,” Williams said.
Smedley said the experience for the softball team was a good one. “We had a lot of fun coming together to shop four our two children,” she said. “We took two boys — brothers — because they are easier to shop for then girls.”
Smedley said they had fun going through the store finding different things off the wish lists. She said the softball players talked about how it was great to think how excited the kids would be when they opened their presents on Christmas.
Several of the student-athletes talked about having fun in the toy department “since we don’t get back to there much any more that we’re older.”
“Back at school when we were wrapping it was fun and an adventure. But great,” Smedley said. “You’d look around and there would be a volleyball player in the baseball group helping or a soccer player helping the basketball team. Everybody was having fun and helping out.”
For TFI, it also was boost. Desmarteau said the agency has had an Angel tree at the college for Christmas “adoptions” but this was special.
“We are so grateful to the student-athletes for this help. We’ll gather the gifts and deliver them anonymously,” Desmarteau said.
Freshman Chase Tjelmeland of Topeka is on the men’s soccer team. He said the members of the men’s and women’s teams went together and adopted four children, buying for two each.
“It was a lot fun shopping. We took the wish lists and split up and really tried to get great gifts for these kids,” Tjelmeland said. “The experience was great for us as individuals and it brought us closer together as a team.
“It’s always a great feeling doing something for someone else. We know these kids are less fortunate than we are and wanted to give back to them and our community here.”
The volleyball team bought gifts for two girls, ages 10 and 12. Sophomore Andrea Miller of Emporia said the team split into two groups at the store each taking a wish list.
“We had fun in the toy department and we also selected a piece of clothing for each of the girls,” Miller said. “The wrapping was a little interesting but loads of fun. Really, it wasn’t about different teams when everybody was milling around helping each other.”
Miller said the volleyball players wanted to do something for the community and “what better than helping make the holiday brighter for children and their families? It was a great bonding experience for us as a team also.”
