College Sports Information Directors of America

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• Log your volunteer hours at CoSIDA.com/Volunteer15

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As the CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee's Volunteer 15 Program enters its fourth year in 2017-18, below is a look back at what was an outstanding 2016-17 that saw another year of increased participation.

Volunteer 15 is an initiative launched in 2014-15 to get CoSIDA members more involved in their communities. CoSIDA members promote the great civic works done by their athletics teams but there is no promotion, or very little, about CoSIDA members doing community service either with these teams or independently. CoSIDA members are encouraged to volunteer at least 15 hours of community service during the 2017-18 school year, then submit your hours using the online form at CoSIDA.com/Volunteer15.

Any questions about the program can be sent to volunteer@cosida.com.

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CoSIDA members log record number of volunteer hours in 2016-17 academic year
by Megan Hardin – Southwestern University
Goodwill and Wellness Committee Vice-Chair

The number of participants and volunteer hours increased for the third consecutive year, setting another record for the College Sports Information Directors of America’s (CoSIDA) Volunteer 15 program. In the 2016-17 academic year, 72 members logged 5,679 hours in their communities and on their campuses nationwide.

SEE FULL LIST OF VOLUNTEER 15 PARTICIPANTS
 
Volunteer 15 participants served their communities as tutors, mentors, coaches, scout leaders, firefighters, humane society advocates, working with Special Olympics and missionaries, to name a few, aside from their day-to-day duties as strategic communicators for college athletics.

The CoSIDA Volunteer 15 program is an initiative to get CoSIDA members more involved in their communities. The program is designed to help promote the great efforts and successes our members have beyond their athletics communications roles. To qualify, CoSIDA members had to volunteer at least 15 hours during the school year. The program is administered by the CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee.

One group had 100 percent participation as 17 members of the CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee successfully completed the Volunteer 15 program.

Participants didn’t stop at the 15-hour threshold as 62 percent of them volunteered 30 or more hours. Six individuals, Edward Haas (Collegiate Water Polo Association), John Martin (Colorado State University), Jacob VanRyn (Northeast-10 Conference), Christopher Wenzler (John Carroll University), Andy Seeley (UCF), Ira Thor (New Jersey City University), recorded over 200 hours of community service. This is the third consecutive year VanRyn and Wenzler logged 200 or more hours while Haas posted an astounding 1210 hours of volunteer work with the Keystone Valley Fire District and West Sadsbury Township Planning Commission in Pennsylvania.

NCAA Division I SIDs had the most participants with 26 followed by Division III (22), Division II (15), NAIA (five) and NJCAA (one).

Get involved during the 2017-18 school year and log your hours to be counted in the Volunteer 15 program. Volunteer hours can be accrued during July 2017 through June 30, 2018. Complete your volunteer log online anytime at CoSIDA.com/Volunteer15.


2017-18 Volunteer 15 Participants