Student-athletes walked around campus on Tuesday asking students for donations for the United Way of Lane County.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., athletes wearing black shirts provided by the Duck Store devoted chunks of time as part of the fall Day of Service put on by O Heroes, a University-supported nonprofit organization run by student athletes. Donations to the charity to support community service and involvement programs with a specialization in health, education and income.
“United Way has been wanting to get involved with the U of O for a long time,” said United Way loaned executive Jessica Daniels. “It’s about a connection to community. We really wanted to raise awareness of the groups at need.”
The event was spearheaded by business professor Richard Mowday, who said he helped organize the event to make charitable work by student athletes more visible.
“Student athletes do lots of community involvement work, but nobody sees it,”
Mowday said.
O Heroes is in its second year of existence. Last year, the group organized teams to participate in the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day, which included reading to children from local schools on the University campus. Athletes also used the program to participate in University Day last spring.
“It’s been really good,” said University Student-Athlete Development Coordinator Katie Harbert. “We’ve hit the 100 mark of student athletes, and we’re really excited. The (University) president even came out for a bit. Overall, I’m excited to see how much money we made after we tally.”
University President Richard Lariviere and the University’s duck mascot both came out to support the demonstration too.
“We tried to mobilize all teams to get involved to really do something,” Harbert said. She expressed her excitement about the participation she has seen, saying that a women’s basketball coach promised to match whatever his
athletes generated.
The charity organizers said they did not have a goal for how much money they wanted to get in donations.
“If we get athletes involved and students engaged, then we’ve met that goal,”
Daniels said.
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