Student-Athletes Make Pass at Good Deeds

What are you doing Friday night?

If you’re a freshman on the football team, you may be cooking and serving dinner to the homeless at the Padre Pio homeless shelter.

Three freshmen get the opportunity to trek up to the Bronx every Friday night to help prepare and serve a meal to 18 homeless men. This program has been newly restarted within Columbia athletics—it began with the arrival of Father Thomas Valenti as the team chaplain in 1997. Valenti is still with the team, but felt it was time to return to this program after a few years’ absence and an incredibly high amount of student interest.

“When the first-years came to camp [there were over 40], I went to Baker Field to practice, and I met with them,” Valenti said. “There were six guys, and after that some guys came and told me ‘Father, I would have come to the meeting but I forgot’ and I got the sense there was a lot of interest. Lo and behold, I had 28 guys—out of 40—that were interested. I thought to myself, ‘This is the opportunity to go back to the Padre Pio Shelter now.’”

Out of all the groups on campus, I didn’t expect to see such community outreach from athletes. You would think that a student-athlete would have his or her hands full already. Father Valenti agreed.

“It’s wonderful that they’re so interested in taking the time,” he said, “with the demands of academics and the demands of working out and going to team meetings—they want to make time to do this because it’s so rewarding for them. They e-mail me when they get back, asking if they can go again soon.”

Now, think back—way back—to first semester. I know, it’s painful. But if you can remember the December men’s basketball game against Lafayette, you may recall seeing the stands packed—with children. Children from the Saint Francis Youth Center, ranging in age from kindergarteners to sophomores in high school, were escorted by many of the football players to come and watch the game.

“These children come from all over the South Bronx, and the center wants to provide something for these children that they ordinarily wouldn’t have,” Valenti said. “Since our athletes are viewed as role models, they at the center encourage us to be involved, because the guys on the team get to know the kids and form a relationship with them. The kids know the guys on our team by name.”

Besides taking them to a game or two (and having the basketball team return the favor by escorting the kids to watch a Columbia football game), the players travel over to visit at the center, and put on fun clinics on Saturdays, for the “more athletically inclined kids, so to speak.” The athletes stage relay races and organize basketball games, but it’s more than that—they really bond with the kids. These guys are their friends, their role models, and their life-size heroes. Father Valenti talked about watching the children as they got to see their idols pounding it out on the gridiron and seeing how surreal it is.

But, wait. There’s more. In addition to the volunteering hours, they also participate in Toys For Tots every winter. Father V said that last year, the team had 100 percent participation.

“Everyone either donated toys or money,” he said. “The team went to a party to donate the toys, and they said, ‘We made this happen for them.’”

This is all up to the athletes—Father V said that while he organizes the logistical aspects of the volunteering, each class has a coordinator who sets up the events. Football players JoJo (Josh) Smith, Clark Koury, and Taylor Joseph organized the events for their respective classes. The freshman class, however, has a more daunting task on hand. There were so many interested individuals that the football freshmen had to be divided into groups of four in order to manage everyone.

And it’s not just the football team. In the past, many teams have been involved, including women’s swimming, women’s soccer, field hockey, wrestling, and men’s and women’s basketball.

Furthermore, for ye of little faith, they aren’t just doing it as a resumé-builder for grad school or for job applications. Several alums, including recent graduates Adrian Demko and Justin Nunez, are still involved with the children of the Saint Francis Youth Center today.

It’s refreshing to see that even as bogged down as the rest of us mere non-athletes can feel in work, studying, and general academic despair, there are people—nay, athletes—who can find the time to “give the gift that gives back” (yeah, I said it). It’s nice to know that some Columbians are finding a way to spend their time on the weekends that doesn’t involve a fake (or real) ID. And it’s cool to find some people who have never sought out recognition for their volunteerism, and give them a chance to be appreciated by more than forty-some kids from the Bronx.