SAAC Collects Record Amount

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - The Shenandoah University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) won its first-ever "title" Thursday afternoon by collecting over 9700 cans for the league's annual "Cans Across the Conference" public service initiative.

Started in 2004, Cans Across the Conference is a league-wide initiative for the 10 USA South Conference schools to give back to their communities during the holiday season.

Each year, SAAC members at league schools collect non-perishable food items for donations in their communities and to date, the league has donated nearly 115,000 food items for the needy.

This year, helped by the SU SAAC's 9797 cans, the league collected a record 29,303 cans. This shatters the previous record set last year by nearly 6500.

As "champion", the SU SAAC will be presented a trophy by the league at a later date. Shenandoah won the initiative by 3625 cans over two-time champion Greensboro College while Ferrum was third at 4456.

"Last year, we partnered with the Student Government Association and finished second," said SAAC co-advisor Lindsey West.

"We were very happy with our showing last year, but wanted to do more. In talking about what to do this year, an idea came up to partner with our flagship radio station, The River 95.3 FM. They wanted to something similar and so we felt it would be beneficial to the whole Shenandoah Valley if we partnered together on this.

"Through the promotion that the station has undertaken and the creation of the tag-line, ‘Throw Hunger Under the Bus', we reached many more people than we have in the past. We definitely reached our goal of helping out as many people as possible in our community.

"I want to thank both SGA and the radio station for their hard work with this. We couldn't have done it without them."

All of the food items collected will be donated to the Salvation Army with any extra food distributed to various food banks in the Valley.

"When Lindsey brought this idea to me, I was more than happy to help out," The River 95.3 FM VP and General Manager Mike O'Dell said. "Since the Salvation Army isn't going to pick up the food until Saturday, we will still accept donations until then."

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