Troy, NY – The Sage Colleges’ athletic teams are firm believers that community service is an important part of their collegiate experience.  Athletic Director Dani Drews and The Sage Colleges believe it so much that it is one of the first things that they have asked their 15 varsity teams to do at the beginning of each season. The 2015-2016 event marks the third time the Gators have participated in this effort.

Drews, who directs the Sage Department of Athletics and Recreation, said "We believe that teamwork is the best way to ensure that everyone succeeds. So, we have asked that our Gators give a little bit of their time and effort to help some of children in our community have a great year."

In the fall of 2013, Drews suggested to the Sage student-athletes that when they reported to campus for their preseason camps in both Albany and Troy, that each student-athlete bring with them a shoe box filled with school supplies to be donated to a local school. Drews added, “I saw an article about the Baldwin Wallace University football team doing a similar project and thought that this was definitely something I’d like us to do at Sage. All of us have had help along the way to go to Sage. It’s important for us to pay it forward,” Drews noted.

Sage has selected the Delaware Community School in Albany as the recipient of our annual School Supply Drive. 

Sage’s Dean Curran helped the athletic department find the school as a way to connect the Dean's summer reading, "Outcasts United" with our athletic program.  The book's website states:

"Outcasts United is the story of a refugee soccer team, a remarkable woman coach and a small southern town turned upside down by the process of refugee resettlement.

It's a tale about resilience, the power of one person to make a difference and the daunting challenge of creating community in a place where people seem to have little in common."

On Wednesday, September 2 Sage student-athletes gathered at the Kahl Campus Center (Albany, NY) at 12:30 p.m. and loaded two vans with back to school supplies for an afternoon delivery of the items to the Delaware Community School.

With this new community service project the list of activities Sage’s student-athletes have participated in the area communities continues to grow. Over the last few years, Sage student-athletes have held a food drive for the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, participated this past spring in the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes Project, as well as the MS Walk, Chompers’ Reading program, and Toys for Tots. Sage’s student-athletes have also volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House preparing meals, while one team also performed community service at the Albany Rescue Mission; while another group helped to decorate the pediatric wing at Albany Medical Center and one team participated in a community service project preparing breakfast for residents of the Waldorf Residence in Albany.