Throughout the 2010-11 seasons, the Southern Conference will feature a student-athlete from around the league in a series called the SoCon Spotlight. This will be an opportunity to see what student-athletes are doing while they are not in the classroom or competing in their sport. The question and answer session focuses on student-athletes that serve as outstanding conference representatives through their community service efforts.
This SoCon Spotlight features Furman's Shannon Cantwell, a senior from Charleston, S.C. Shannon arrived at Furman with hopes of running cross country and track, but an injury her freshman year kept her away from cross country. She now focuses her athletic ability to the track and field team. Outside of being a student-athlete, Cantwell started a non-profit organization called Athletes for Africa, and she recently returned from a summer mission trip with other Furman student-athletes from Swaziland, Africa, where they learned the importance to giving back to those less fortunate.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I am an 800 meters track runner here at Furman University. I have had a wonderful career in athletics. I have really enjoyed being a runner and the things that running has allowed me to do outside of just my sport.
What's your favorite thing about running track here at Furman?
It's my teammates and the camaraderie I have with the rest of my team. Running with them has been a really great experience. Gene Mullin, my coach, is the best. A lot of people know him, and he is wonderful. He has helped me to run well and has helped all of our team.
Tell us a little bit about the non-profit organization called Athletes for Africa that you have started.
I started Athletes for Africa in January 2009, but it really started a little bit before that. In the summer of 2008, I spent two months working at an orphanage in Swaziland, Africa, which is a small country located near South Africa and Mozambique. I was incredibly inspired by my experience there, and I wanted to share what I have seen with others. In 2009, I started Athletes for Africa to do just that. I saw an incredible need to athletes to be involved in service and to serve the impoverished, not only in their own community, as many of us already do, but also abroad. I have been involved in various social justice organizations at Furman, and I noticed the same groups of people in each group. Most of the clubs did not target athletes, so I wanted to specifically engage athletes in service.
How do you coordinate a trip like this?
I partnered with another organization called Heart for Africa, and they specialize in 10-day service trips. I had gone with them initially in 2008 to Swaziland, and they really facilitated the logistics of our trip. They were a big help with that.
You just got back from your trip from Swaziland. Tell us about the trip over there.
It was an amazing trip. I was just so thrilled with everything that happened on the trip. We took five varsity athletes from Furman (three football players and two track runners). We really went over there to share our sports with the children at the orphanage. These kids have been abandoned by everyone in the world, and it was such an incredible experience to play with them. We played all kinds of sports, even sports that we do not even specialize in. We had American football, but that turned into a cross between rugby and soccer. We played soccer, basketball, volleyball and even a little bit of golf. We had a great time. We also hosted two field days for some of the community kids and the kids at the orphanage. We built a cooking shelter in one of the rural communities. We even hosted a cookout from that same cooking shelter. We counted about 200 children at the cookout. I was unbelievable, and I am so grateful for everyone that has supported Athletes for Africa, and I hope to continue in the future.
How did the children react to the presence of the athletes?
They got a kick out of us being there. We had a big football player named David with us, and one of the children said, "David, you're not David, you're Goliath!" We had a great time playing all different sports with them and different games. You could really see them light up with joy. The fact that we came all the way across the ocean to help them, to be with them, to love them, to care for them and to show them that we really think that they're valuable.
What was the biggest challenge that the group faced in Swaziland?
We faced a lot of challenges. Swaziland has the highest HIV infection rate in the world, which is about 40 percent of its population. That challenge is absolutely enormous for anyone to face, especially for our group to understand that and to understand how it affects the children in the country. 200,000 children are orphaned in Swaziland alone, so it's a huge problem, and our challenge was to understand the huge problem but not to be there to solve it because you can't solve it in the two weeks that we were there. We needed to realize our own limitations and to utilize the gifts that we have been given as athletes to serve in the way that we could in the time we were there.
What is one memory that stands out during your time in Africa?
We had a lot of memorable experiences. Playing sports with them was great, and that is what we were there to do. But one of the more poignant memory I have is when we took a long walk out to a more rural and deserted area. It was a place of African huts and extreme poverty, like what people imagine when they think African poverty. We saw a grandmother lying down outside of the hut, and her granddaughter was standing in the doorway when we walked up. To see her with her grandmother, who was totally incapacitated with old age and illness, was heartbreaking. The grandmother was the only one that could take care of this child because her parents were not there or had died of AIDS. We tried to give them some encouraging words and a little bit of food, but that is not going to last very long. We really felt for the little girl there, and there was so little we could do. That was one of moments that really stood out for me.
How do you go about encouraging other student-athletes to get involved in service projects such as Athletes for Africa?
I think it is very important to be involved in this kind of service, which is more internationally-based, with trying to help in development efforts or just locally through your athletic service boards. Volunteering is so important. It is important to give back because we have been given so much to attend a university, to play sports and to do what we love. That is just such a blessing, and we just need to give a little bit back from what we have been given. Whether that is helping with a Habitat for Humanity house or working with a soup kitchen. You don't have to go all away across the world to help somebody, and I think that is so important for all of us to understand athletes. Obviously, I have a heart for Africa, and I hope to continue doing that with athletes here at Furman.
How can athletes afford a mission trip like that of Athletes for Africa?
We are founded as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so Athletes for Africa is a tax-exempt organization. What I did by finding the organization, was to fundraise for the trip so it would be a highly subsidized cost to the athletes. I am very grateful that the Emirates Airlines Foundation sponsored our flights, so that was a huge blessing. The athletes themselves only had to pay $900 each for the entirety of the two weeks. That is not very much, considering the incredible accommodations they were to experience. It is an expensive thing to do for only two weeks, but at the same time, it is an experience of a lifetime.
How did you create awareness for Athletes for Africa in the community?
We did a lot of athletic fundraisers. We tried to work fundraising into some type of sporting event because we are Athletes for Africa. In 2009, we hosted the "Driving out PoverTEE" golf tournament. We had a good turnout. It was difficult to host a golf tournament during a global recession, but we stuck to it. This past year, we had a dodgeball tournament, a flag football tournament and an athlete date auction right before Valentine's Day. It was just different kind of ways for fundraising.
Are you hoping to expand Athletes for Africa outside of the Furman community?
I would like to. I have tried to do it a little bit. I attended the NCAA career and sports forum this past May, so I networked a little to get other athletes interested. It's difficult to do it at such an arm's length like that, but I would love to get other schools in the Southern Conference involved in helping to fundraise and go on the trip. I would never limit it to only Furman athletes because I feel that everyone needs to see how they can help those that are less fortunate than themselves.
What are your plans with the organization once you graduate this year?
I hope to continue it here at Furman and at other Southern Conference schools, if the schools would like to take it up. I would want to do that through the athletes that are in the younger years. We took two sophomores on the trip this past summer, so I have full faith that they will continue Athletes for Africa for the remainder of their time at Furman. I want to continue it beyond that, and it has support from the athletic department, so I think that should give it foundation.
How do you make time to run Athletes for Africa?
It is a challenge. Sometimes I do not know how I handle it, but I make it through. It was particularly challenging last spring during track season with having a meet one weekend then a fundraiser next week. But it all has to do with time management and being wise about my decisions and taking responsibility for my decisions. I have planners that get me through the day.
How can people find out more information about Athletes for Africa?
We have a website: www.athletes4africa.net, and you can find out more information there.
What is your favorite part about being an athlete in the Southern Conference?
I think the Southern Conference is just fantastic. The athletics are obviously amazing, and it is wonderful to compete against all of the other schools in the conference. I value the SoCon's emphasis on things besides athletics. The value the Southern Conference has the whole athlete, not just athletics but saying, "you are a university student as well, so you are a student first and then an athlete: a student-athlete." The Southern Conference values of academics and service is very important, and that is something that I think is wonderful about the Southern Conference.
Photo Gallery from Athletes for Africa's trip to Swaziland