ELON, N.C. - During the 2010-11 season, the Elon University women's basketball team continued to stay active in the community throughout the year, participating in several initiatives geared toward mentoring elementary school students, as well as lending a helping hand locally at the Cancer Center at Alamance Regional Hospital.
The team started the Girls and Women in Sports (GWIS) initiative in which the team and coaches go to local elementary schools to speak with students in the community about the importance of staying active and living a healthy lifestyle, as well as setting goals and working hard in the classroom.
The initiative, which will be carried over from season to season, began this year and the Phoenix visited several local elementary schools in Alamance County, including E.M. Yoder in Mebane and Hillcrest in Burlington.
Along with this initiative, the team also took part in the Southern Conference Adopt-A-Class program designed to create a tie between SoCon student-athletes and elementary school children in the greater Chattanooga community, the site of the 2011 SoCon Tournament.
Throughout the basketball season, the team sent pictures, player profiles and assorted logo items to the teachers of the 22 elementary classes (two per SoCon team). SoCon athletes exchanged cards and notes electronically, as well as in the mail. The team created a special video for its two classes, introducing themselves and talked about their role on the team, as well as their favorite cartoon show. Elon participated in the program with Bess T. Shepherd Elementary and Clifton Hills Elementary in Chattanooga, helping the youngsters get geared up for the SoCon Tournament by helping with creative signs and t-shirts to help cheer on the Phoenix.
Throughout the year, Elon women's basketball also volunteered locally at Mebane on the Move, the Burlington Rotary Club and East Burlington Community Center, along with various on-campus events.
Sophomore forward Lei Lei Hairston spearheaded the women's basketball team's involvement in volunteering at the Cancer Center at Alamance Regional Hospital as well this past season.
"The goal of volunteering at the Cancer Center is to offer a helping hand, put a smile on someone's face, and gain relationships," Hairston said. "We want to impact the lives of others in any way we can."
Hairston and the team's vision with the opportunity is to influence the lives of others, as well as their own, through volunteering at the Cancer Center at Alamance Regional Hospital.
"I feel that if we can impact just a few lives on the court which we have done, then we can do it on an even larger scale by volunteering at the Cancer Center," Hairston explained. "Cancer patients are in treatment for hours, so having just a simple conversation with them can be the one thing that brightens their day. We help out in any way we can. We will ask the nurses if they need us to do anything and if they say no, we sit with a patient and help them with anything they may need."
Hairston and the team's goal is to make the volunteer service at the Cancer Center an ongoing tradition with future Elon women's basketball teams.
"I hope that when I graduate, someone else could take over the position of overseeing everything and making sure everything runs smoothly," Hairston said. "This is a great tradition the team can start because it helps us get closer with the community and each other. We will appreciate things more than we already do because it could be taken away from us in a heartbeat."