Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

The MIAC continued its annual conference service project by once again volunteering with Rebuilding Together, a national organization that enables volunteer groups to make an impact in their area. According to the organization’s Web site, it is: “the nation’s leading nonprofit working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize communities … [its] 200 affiliates provide free rehabilitation and critical repairs to the homes of low-income Americans.”

 

Last Saturday, the MIAC’s volunteer project was part of “National Rebuilding Day 2011” which featured approximately 4,000 projects nationwide. The MIAC group – consisting of representatives from the conference’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and other student-athlete volunteers – was delegated to a project in North Minneapolis, and though Mother Nature interfered with some of the exterior repair plans, the MIAC group teamed up with other volunteers and skilled professionals to assist a local homeowner with some much-needed repairs.

 

“Seeing our student-athletes come together to help someone they didn’t know on a rainy, unpleasant afternoon really says a lot about what the MIAC stands for and the types of opportunities available to our student-athletes,” said Sara Eisenhauer, MIAC staffer and project organizer. “It was great to see our student-athletes give up part of their day to do something for someone else, in less than ideal conditions, without complaint.”

 

The work ranged from major overhauls to minor improvements, and the end result was an improved living situation for the homeowner. The group cleaned out the garage and poured a whole new concrete floor over the top of the old slanted and cracked concrete. They did more concrete work in the front walkway, repairing several badly-damaged stairs, and other projects were done inside the house such as installing railings on staircases, fixing electrical wiring and painting.

 

Though the student-athletes’ previous experience with such projects varied, all rolled up their sleeves and didn’t hesitate to learn a new skill or assist however they could.

 

“I enjoyed both the concrete work and painting the room inside, neither of which I had any experience doing before that day,” Katie Jacobsen said, an Augsburg College women’s soccer player. “I helped with the concrete pouring of the garage which involved using a shovel to lift and push the concrete into the proper place to make a level garage floor surface once it had dried. I also helped to paint an interior room of the house when the weather was not ideal and we weren’t able to fix the trim on the outside of the house.

 

“I am a novice at all kinds of things when it comes to home repair and usually leave that up to my dad, so I was excited to learn something new that perhaps I could help out my own family with down the road.”

 

Ellen Esch, a swimming and diving student-athlete from Carleton College, helped with the smaller-scale concrete project on the front steps. She had some experience with similar work before last Saturday, but due to the nature of the project she said she worked hard to do the best job she could.

 

“I mostly helped do some concrete work to rebuild the cracked front steps,” Esch said. “While I have had some experience with small-scale concrete projects before, this was the first one where I had to worry about aesthetics and making the finished project look polished.”

 

“The foundation of these stairs was shaky and crumbling,” Eisenhauer added about the stair repair. “We cut boards to help create a solid formation for the steps. Then we mixed concrete and filled in the gaps of the stairs. The stairs were extremely dangerous for anyone to walk on prior to the repairs.”

 

In addition to the great improvements done by the volunteers, the MIAC student-athletes found the project to be very enjoyable for a number of reasons. However, the gratitude expressed by the homeowner and the ability to make a difference in her home and her life was the day’s highlight for most of the volunteers.

 

“The thing I will remember most is the great big smile and appreciation of the homeowner who was extremely grateful,” Jacobsen said. “It was very satisfying to help her out and see her face light up at the sight of our work … The satisfaction and sense of helping out a member of the community was a great feeling. It was also a neat project to work on because one was there to witness the results and see how all their hard work contributed to help complete the project.”

 

“My favorite part of the day was probably being able to talk to our homeowner,” Eisenhauer added. “So often with projects like this, there is little to no interaction with the homeowners or individuals benefitting from the work. Our homeowner was around the entire day and helped out in small ways.”

 

The student-athletes also came away from the event with a real sense of pride, both in themselves and the positive way they represented their institutions and the MIAC as whole.

 

“I very much enjoyed representing Carleton and the MIAC-- being an ambassador of two great organizations is always a positive experience,” Esch said.

 

“It was an honor to represent Augsburg as well as the larger MIAC conference and I hope that I am able to offer more of my services to help others in need in the near future,” Jacobsen added. “I’m also going to try and get my whole team to volunteer for this project next year as the more the merrier, and we could probably accomplish a lot more together with everyone’s help.”

 

And, almost all the student-athletes commented on how – for a day – it was nice to put those storied rivalries aside to come together and achieve a common goal. While the spirit of competition will certainly continue within the MIAC, Rebuilding Together allowed student-athletes to get to know the people inside the uniforms on the opposing sidelines, and connect for an extremely worthwhile cause.

 

“Rebuilding Together is a great service project,” said Patrick Pipekorn, a Macalester College basketball and football student-athlete. “It is an opportunity to get out with other athletes from the MIAC that you might not know, work together and help somebody who is in need. In general, the project was a lot of fun for me and my teammates. It was great to be able to represent [Macalester] and help someone out in need. It is amazing how much can get accomplished with many hands working on the same project. It was all-around a very rewarding experience.”

 

“I decided to volunteer for the MIAC’s Rebuilding Together project to meet and work alongside some of the other athletes in our conference,” Jacobsen added. “We are usually competing against one another, and it was fun to work side-by-side on a cooperative project to see how much we could accomplish together.”

 

It’s safe to say that today’s college students – particularly student-athletes – will be the leaders of tomorrow both in the Twin Cities and in communities everywhere. Between their efforts with a project like this and their thoughtful reflection afterward, it’s clear this group of student-athletes understands the relationship between themselves, their institutions, and the community.

 

“I decided to volunteer for the MIAC Rebuilding Together project because I have had very positive experiences volunteering before and because it is a great way to give back to the greater Twin Cities area that offers the MIAC many opportunities we would not otherwise have,” Esch said.

 

“So much of the Division III philosophy is focused on the experiences that student-athletes have outside of athletics and how those experiences will shape them into responsible and active citizens within their communities after college,” Eisenhauer said. “Service to others plays a huge part in fulfilling part of a student-athlete’s Division III experience. The Rebuilding Together project is a great way to expose our student-athletes to issues that are going on in their surrounding communities and make them more aware of the world that they are living in and how they can help improve it.”

 

On all fronts, mission accomplished.