By Jamie Kania

Buffalo State College student-athletes showed they are role models both on and off the field by participating in the State University of New York Athletic Conferencecleanup day.

Cleanup day is a SUNYAC-wide community service project.  More than 200 Buffalo State student-athletes showed up to help rake leaves in parks, pick up trash, paint over graffiti and plant bulbs in the community. They also helped clean up the surrounding areas of Buffalo State College by collecting over two Dumpsters full of trash.

The cleanup program was primarily run by student-athletes and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which is made of two student-athlete leaders from each team. http://www.buffalostate.edu/studentlife/x570.xml These leaders are picked by their coaches and teammates to keep administration and coaches informed about the players’ concerns. Members then take a leadership role in addressing those concerns.

Meg Stevens, head woman’s lacrosse coach, was the cleanup day project adviser.

“I hope student-athletes really begin to see how much a difference they can make in their community,” she said. “They need to take leadership roles on campus and to help our community.”

This is the first time student-athletes at BSC did a project in conjunction with the rest of SUNY, but they are constantly doing community service, Stevens said. There is a CHAMPS/Life Skills program that helps student-athletes with roles in community service as well as academic, personal, career and athletic development. http://www.buffalostate.edu/insider/index.asp?article=1664&vol=10

As a team, players have to support each other on the field and off, and cleanup day was good chance to do that. The students had a great experience and even worked through the rain storm, Stevens said.

“It was a really great bonding experience, at least for my team,” Tawan Slaughter, of the woman’s basketball team, said.

Stevens feels cleanup day was a huge success and has already received great feedback from the community and the mayor’s office.

“They not only represented themselves well, but they also represented the athletics department, other Buffalo State students and Buffalo State College in an amazing manner,” Stevens said.

Meg Stevens can be reached at stevenma@buffalostate.edu

Buffalo State Athletic Department http://www.buffalostate.edu/athletics/

Jamie Kania can be reached at kanijm00@buffalostate.edu