TOWSON, Md. – There was cake, popcorn, streamers and a special banner unveiling as the Towson University department of athletics celebrated its 2018 Community Service Team Works Helper Helper national championship prior to a recent men's basketball game against Delaware.
Enjoying a memorable evening, the Tigers were feted for finishing with the most community service hours in the nation. Three members of Towson's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) executive board, senior Jaina McLean (women's track and field), senior Diondre Wallace (football) and junior Drew Laundry (men's lacrosse), accepted the national championship trophy from NCAA associate director of community relations Victor Hill during a pre-game ceremony.
Also participating in the ceremony were Towson director of athletics
Tim Leonard and Towson senior assistant director of athletics for the Total Tiger Program
Antwaine Smith.
Moments later and with the soundtrack of thunderous applause providing sweet sounds, the veil was removed to display the championship banner that will permanently hang in the corner of SECU Arena. Black and gold streamers were also released as the banner was being uncovered.
"I loved the banner," Hill said. "I told Tim, I may have to make it part of the winning package moving forward. The NCAA Teamworks Award is extremely important to us. For Towson to be able to do what they've done has been fabulous and outstanding. It's great to be here and celebrate Towson's commitment to serving the community."
Towson completed the most community service hours among all schools in the competition, including 75 Division I and approximately 300 total programs across the country. Towson student-athletes and staff completed 5,583 hours of community service from September to November around the Greater Baltimore area.
"Tonight was a great night to be a student-athlete at Towson," McLean said. "All of us as a whole have made sacrifices to be able to better the community around us. I hope Towson continues to beat out the competition, because this feels like we just won a championship. My emotions as the banner was unveiled skyrocketed. It was a great presentation."
Becoming a leader in campus & community engagement is one of Towson athletics' six strategic themes and all 19 Towson sport programs are part of this national achievement.
The strong community service initiative is part of Towson's Total Tiger program under Smith's leadership. It takes a 360-degree view of the development of Tiger student-athletes. The goal is to educate, advocate, mentor and serve. The program gives Towson student-athletes opportunities to engage and interact within the Greater Baltimore area through community service and mentorships. Each of the last six years, Towson athletics has completed more than 10,000 hours per year in the Greater Baltimore community.
"This was a lot of fun and it was cool to be able to make a difference in someone else's life," Towson women's basketball senior guard
Danielle Durjan said following her participation in a recent autism clinic. "Participating in this clinic was special because it helps you understand how blessed we really are to be in a position to make a positive impact. This is something I don't take for granted. To be able to make somebody else's day better is really the true value of what we do and makes us important in the community."
Throughout the year, Towson's student-athletes have read to elementary school students, served meals around the holidays, participated in activities with various youth groups, hosted clinics and much more.
"I looked over and saw many of our student-athletes here and know all the work that they've done to make a night like this possible," Leonard said. "I look back and when I first got here, a lot of this was being driven by the administration to make this happen. Now, the student-athletes are the ones driving this. Everybody has bought into this and that's been fun to see. It's no longer us saying, we have to do some of these community service projects.
"Now, it's the student-athletes coming to us wanting to do these community service projects because it's important us. (The community service national championship) was something worth celebrating. That's the best part of the job."
