Helping Hands Food Drive

Each October, the Colby students, faculty and staff rally to collect cans to stock the local food pantries as they prepare for the winter months. As I explained to our team, winter can be a tough period in Maine - particularly for lower income families who may be forced to choose between heating oil and food.

This year - our SAAC (Student Athletic Advisory Committe) threw out a challenge to all athletic teams to become involved in this cannned food drive. The team that collected the most cans (as measured by weight in relation to the number of team members) would be able to design and participate in the serving of a full meal at Dana Dining Hall. With our team's love of competition and connection to the local community, we were all in.

As a campus, Colby collected over 8,400 pounds of food for mid-Maine shelters. Figuring the average can weighs about a pound this is a lot of cans! What is more impressive is that the athletic teams at Colby collected 34% of these cans!!

In the end - and unfortunately for the swim team - Men's Crew took the title by collecting 811 pounds in total, which is quite impressive. Swimming came in second with 398lbs followed by Women’s Soccer with 253lbs.

The rest of the teams paned out as follows:

Football = 116lbs

Men’s and Women’s Alpine Ski = 89lbs

Men’s Baseball = 62lbs

Men’s Cross Country = 117lbs

Men’s Soccer = 165lbs

Women’s Crew = 211lbs

Women’s Cross Country = 30lbs

Women’s Ice Hockey = 62lbs

Women’s Lacrosse = 143lbs

Men’s Nordic Ski = 74lbs

Men’s Lacrosse = 63lbs

Men’s Tennis = 25lbs

This is a great showing by all the teams for a very worthy cause with a direct and significant impact. Congrats to the swimming team for a mighty effort and to all the Mules...WELL DONE!!