Check out past profiles
Denise Thompson, Northern Arizona
Jeremy Rosenthal, Indiana
Brian Davis, Texas
Bryan Marshall, Millikin
Kim Ling, Ole Miss
Rick Baker, Mars Hill University
Sam Atkinson, Gallaudet University
Judy Willson, Mountain West Conference
Chris Wenzler, John Carroll University
Tom Caudill, Muskingum University |
This is the next profile Q and A in a series entitled
Communicators Outside the Lines: Better Yourself, Better Your Community produced by the CoSIDA Goodwill & Wellness Committee.
HAVE IDEAS OR MEMBERS TO NOMINATE FOR THIS SERIES?
If you have any ideas for this series, which will revolve around CoSIDA member volunteerism and health and wellness, please contact Goodwill and Wellness Committee chair
Chris Mitchell, Washington University in St. Louis Assistant AD for Communications, at (618) 560-9280 or
mitchell@wustl.edu.
Q&A with Patrick Walsh
Assistant AD for Media Relations, Mercer University
By Amanda (Murphy) Radtke, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications, University of North Florida
CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee member
Patrick Walsh is currently in his first year as the Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He joined Mercer in August following seven years as the associate director of communications at Louisiana Tech University with prior stops at The Citadel, Newberry College and the University of South Carolina as a student assistant.
He is a 2005 graduate of the University of South Carolina, a co-founder and former member of the Board of Directors for
Wiggin' Out and a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors for
Heroes In Blue. If his name and face aren't familiar, you've likely seen him at a CoSIDA/NACDA Convention wearing a bow tie.
Q: Tell us about the organizations you are currently involved in.
WALSH: Heroes In Blue is a charitable organization whose mission is to promote the positive, untold, everyday acts of members of law enforcement; and provide assistance to families of fallen officers. I was also recently involved with Wiggin' Out, a non-profit organization that helps provide cancer patients with wigs. In both organizations I served on the Board of Directors.
Q: What led you to get involved in each?
WALSH: I actually co-founded both organizations. For Wiggin’ Out, that was a cooperative organization that began with Louisiana Tech Athletics (my former employer, I changed jobs in August), the local hospital and a local monthly magazine. Louisiana Tech had been involved with the local hospital during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we all wanted to do something more. An idea sparked by someone from the local monthly magazine prompted the idea for Wiggin’ Out. We all came together and launched the effort with great success. The last gala we held before I left grossed over $35,000 in one night.
Heroes In Blue came about on a much more personal level. A good friend from college and fraternity brother, Greg Alia, was a police officer in Forest Acres, South Carolina. Last fall he was shot and killed in the line of duty while pursuing a suspect, leaving behind a wife and then-six month old son. I found out he passed about an hour after it happened and worked with other fraternity brothers to launch a GoFundMe page that raised over $200,000 for his family. Seeing that, and the outpouring of positive stories that his wife asked for, I worked with her to launch Heroes In Blue.
https://www.facebook.com/heroesinblue/
Q: How do you manage being a head SID and all of these volunteer hours?
WALSH: It is definitely critical to manage your time wisely. There is already so much to balance within our jobs, but really keeping a structured management of your time and duties is so important. It isn't easy, especially during football season.
Q: What skills from your job do you apply with your volunteer hours?
WALSH: I think a lot of what I do in my career directly applies to the organizations I've worked with. Social media, messaging, promotion, event management and trying to tell the positive stories of what we are doing all go into helping support the volunteer organizations I've worked with.
Q: Why do you think giving your time is so important?
WALSH: I place a high value in helping others when you can and there are a variety of ways in which to help. When I was in my previous job and worked with Wiggin' Out, it was amazing to see the tears of joy and gratitude when we were able to provide someone going through chemotherapy treatments with a wig so that they could gain a little self-confidence back. I had never really known anyone going through cancer (particularly breast cancer) before I got involved with Wiggin' Out, but since then have known a few people close to me, including my aunt who is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a very invasive form of breast cancer.
Call it what you will (i.e. karma) but as you sow, so shall you reap. I'm able to use the skills I have learned throughout my profession to help promote organizations and let them touch countless lives. The idea of giving back was instilled in me in both my parents and both sets of my grandparents; my mom's mom has served in almost every volunteer role possible at a hospital in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla. My dad's dad (a former Marine) spent a lot of his retirement working with his local chapter of Toys for Tots.
Q: How can others get involved in their community or with organizations they are passionate about?
WALSH: Identify something you are passionate about or something that has affected you or a family member and look for opportunities to help that cause in some way. For the better part of the last decade I have lived in a very small college town and used my networking skills and contacts to help start and run two different organizations. I have been able to accomplish that by using the tools of the trade that make me successful in my career.
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