Virginia Tech Athletics
Office of Student Life

NCAA CHAMPS/LifeSkills Area of Commitment: Community Outreach

The VT Athletics Office of Student Life community outreach program is "Hokies with Heart." Student-athletes are encouraged to volunteer throughout their college experience. Each athletic team is asked to partner with a community service organization. The teams volunteer their time and market their community service organization at home events.

Would you like to request a visit by a Hokie student-athlete or VT athletic team to your school or civic activity? Just click the following link:
Community Outreach Event Request Form
Please remember- submitting a request does not guarantee that the request will be fulfilled.

Community Outreach Programming

American Education Week
Initiated in 2003 - Each fall we take student athletes, student leaders (student government, etc) and Corps of Cadets to each high school in Montgomery County. They speak in freshmen classrooms about the importance of education and staying in school. We like this outreach event because the high school students can interact and ask questions of the speakers. We encourage our athletes to talk about personal struggles they have had with school but have the "moral of the story" be that education is important.

Canned Food Drive
Initiated in 2002 - Coordinated by SAAC, student-athletes collect canned food at a basketball game in the spring. We usually choose a date when both the men's and women's teams play. The food is distributed between three local food banks.

Lunch Buddies
Initiated in 2005 - Lunch Buddies was initiated in the fall of 2005 as a way for Lacrosse student-athletes to volunteer with their community partner, Harding Avenue Elementary School. Once a week, team members attended lunch with a specific class that they "adopted." The program was so successful, we expanded it to include the women's soccer team and their partner, Margaret Beeks Elementary School and also the volleyball team and Kipps Elementary School. A few other student-athletes who heard about the Lunch Buddies program through the grapevine wanted to participate, so we placed them at one of the three participating schools. In the next year, the program will expand to more schools and all student-athletes will be given the opportunity to participate.

Montgomery County Christmas Store
Initiated in 1982 - Working at the Christmas Store is a neat opportunity for the athletes at Virginia Tech to serve families in need who live in our community. "The Montgomery County Christmas Store is an all-volunteer, community wide, nonprofit organization which assists low-income families in Montgomery County during the Christmas season by providing a shopping experience characterized by choice and dignity. Serving families with children is our first priority." Student-athletes sign up for two-hour time slots during the preparation stages and when the store is open to the public. To get the store ready, they help stock shelves with toys, clothes and other goods to be "sold" at the store. When the store is open they help by staffing the child care area, loading food and Christmas items into shoppers' cars and assisting the shoppers by keeping track of purchases and point totals.

Read Across America Week
Initiated in 2003 - Similar to American Education Week, Read Across America Week is an opportunity for student-athletes, student leaders and Corps of Cadet members to visit local schools. In this outreach event, we go to middle schools to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday and talk about the importance of reading. We visit four classrooms at a time and each speaker takes 5 minutes to talk about one form of reading (reading for pleasure, reading textbooks, reading newspapers, reading to advance in career interest). All four students are speaking in different classrooms at the same time, so we rotate every five minutes. This is another great opportunity for our student-athletes to get small group interaction with kids and make a positive impact.

Special Olympics Basketball Tournament
Initiated in 1990 - Each year Virginia Tech hosts the Special Olympics Regional Basketball Tournament in Cassell Coliseum. Student-athletes assist with skills competitions, run score clocks, help with the opening ceremonies and present awards to the Special Olympians.

Special Olympics Individual Sports Leagues
Initiated in 2003 - Students who indicate they are interested in helping with the Special Olympics are given the opportunity to participate individual sports leagues during the fall and the spring. Student-athletes who volunteer go once a week to participate in a "Unified Sports Team," which consists of community volunteers and Special Olympians. We participate in Bowling, Volleyball, Softball, Swimming, Walking, and Basketball leagues throughout the year.

VT Autograph Nights
Initiated over 15 years ago - Student-athletes visit local elementary schools to sign autographs and hang out with the kids. Each elementary school's Autograph Night is a little different-some have games and music, while others have are more low-key. We invited the cheerleaders, dance team, Hokie Bird, and the band to participate in the festivities. It is a really fun opportunity for band members to interact with students and sign autographs, since they are rarely asked for their autograph! We strive to have at least three or four student-athletes from each team present. Many teams, such as golf, softball and volleyball, have the entire squad attend together.

White Ribbon Campaign
Initiated in 2001 - The White Ribbon Campaign is a part of Sexual Violence Awareness Month at Virginia Tech. For one week, men on campus distribute information about sexual violence and urge other men to wear white ribbons to show that they don't condone violence against women. The athletic department staffs a table in front of a dining facility with members of various other groups who participate in this project. We partner with the Residence Life, Fraternity and Sorority Life, VT Men's Group, Student Life, Project SAVE, Theta Chi, the Women's Center and Cook Counseling Center for this volunteer opportunity.

Winning Choices Assemblies
Initiated in 2003 - The Rotary Club sponsors an essay writing competition in Montgomery County during April. All elementary school children are asked to complete essays on one of the character values associated with making "winning choices"-honesty, trustworthiness, kindness, etc. The essay contest winner is announced at an all-school assembly. Although the program has been in existence for many years, Virginia Tech Athletics has partnered with the Rotary Club for three years to provide a student-athlete key-note speaker at each assembly. This year each of our athletes spoke about sportsmanship. We also take Corps of Cadet members to Winning Choices Assemblies to be the other key-note speaker. The students who win the essay contest get to attend Winning Choices Day. We also provide a key note speaker for that day, which is usually a coach

ACC Top Six for Service Award Recipients

Awarded to the top six student-athletes at each member institution for their dedication to community outreach.

2007-2008 Top Six for Service Award Winners
Jen Albrecht Volleyball
Bryan Collier Men's Soccer
Scott King Football
Mauri LiberatiWomen's Soccer
Ashley Owens Women's Soccer
Grant Throckmorton Football
2006-2007 Top Six for Service Award Winners
Britney Anderson Women's Basketball
Brandon Frye Football
Benden Hill Football
Ashley Owens Women's Soccer
Mallory Soldner Women's Soccer
Bryan Thomas Baseball
2005-2006 Top Six for Service Award Winners
Dave Atkiss Men's Cross Country/Track & Field
Anat Elazari Women's Tennis
Rosemary Patterson Women's Lacrosse
Cory Price Football
Mallory Soldner Women's Soccer
Grant Throckmorton Football

Office of Student Life