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For Immediate Release

Friday, June 4, 2010

Contact(s)

Jennifer Royer
Associate Director of Public
 and Media Relations
317/917-6117

INDIANAPOLIS---The Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee announced that it already has exceeded its fundraising goal to assist relief efforts in Haiti after a massive earthquake in January devastated the country.

Dozens of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees at Division III schools have worked quickly to meet a $100,000 challenge the Division III SAAC made shortly after the tragedy. SAAC members said that despite having met the benchmark, they’ll continue to encourage their peers at the grass-roots level to keep raising funds through the previously stated deadline of December 1, 2010.

The challenge was in addition to a $300,000 gift the NCAA made to UNICEF to help with that organization’s relief efforts in Haiti in the weeks after the natural disaster. While the gift represented $100,000 from each division, the Division III governance leadership (the Presidents and Management Councils and the Division III SAAC) challenged SAACs at the campus and conference levels to match the division’s portion of the gift.

“In that moment of tragedy there was opportunity to live out the values of Division III, which include citizenship,” said Division III SAAC chair Isaiah Goodman, a former basketball student-athlete at Washington and Lee University. “The division’s newly created strategic-positioning platform emphasizes the educational opportunities provided to student athletes in the classroom, in competition and in the community. One of the key focuses for our division is citizenship, and we thought a Division III-specific response to the situation in Haiti was warranted.”

The response has been immediate and significant. So far, more than 70 Division III SAACs have donated a total of $107,199 in monetary gifts and another $20,500 in goods and services.

Presidents Council chair Jim Harris from Widener University said he’s not surprised by the fact that student-athletes met the bar, but he is amazed it happened so fast.

“Our Division III SAAC reacted so well to this challenge that I knew it would be carried out with the kind of enthusiasm and commitment that we’ve come to expect from our student-athletes,” he said. “But to surpass a year-long goal in only few months is truly remarkable.”

“This is a great testament to the citizenship, leadership and commitment of our DIII SAACs and student-athletes,” said Division III Vice President Dan Dutcher. “This collaborative effort reinforces the good work that goes on regularly at Division III campuses that many people aren’t aware of. It also goes to show that as large as the division is, when it bonds together as a team, the results can be especially significant.”

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