This year, while the rest of campus got into the holiday spirit, the Calvin Athletics teams got into the giving spirit. Spearheaded by the Calvin Student Athletic Activities Community the idea for a food drive came in collaboration with athletic director Dr. James Timmer and their advisor Jane Hendriksma.
 
"The whole Calvin SAAC group was eager to pursue this opportunity to support the local food program at Eastern Avenue CRC," said Taylor Sanborn, a SAAC leader and a senior on the softball team.
 
Sanborn, along with Nolan Coil, a senior on the baseball team, got to work immediately as they organized the food drive. From November 18-23 they worked to collect as many non-perishable food items as possible such as canned foods, cereal, instant meals, pasta and more. However, it wouldn't be Calvin Athletics without a little bit of competition sprinkled in.
 
"Our whole group agreed that making it a competition would be the best way to try and gather as many donations as we could for the cause," explained Sanborn. "We are all collegiate athletes, so playing into our competitive nature seemed fitting especially since we were hoping to make a big contribution to our community."
 
Now, with a competition presented to them, each Calvin team was given a box to keep in a designated area for the team to collect their items throughout the week. At the end of the week a SAAC representative from each team brought the items to the next meeting where items were totaled, and a winner was agreed upon.
 
To even the playing field and account for all the different sized teams on campus, the winner was determined by their item to player ratio. Women's basketball took third place with 11 items per player while triathlon took seventh with 17 items per player. However, at the end of the day, the Calvin softball team took the first-place crown as they tallied 25 items per player. In total, the Calvin SAAC collected over 2,000 items to donate to the food program.
 
"The fact that we were able to gather so many donations in a relatively short time just shows how eager the Calvin Athletics teams are to give back to our community," said Sanborn. "It also shows how much of an impact we can have when we work together towards a common goal."
 
After collecting all the items, the SAAC leadership team went to work on loading everything into cars and heading off to make the delivery. With the help of Dr. Nancy Meyer, the athletes arrived at the Eastern Avenue CRC in the first week of December to make a drop off that would go on to impact many members of the Grand Rapids community.
 
"We are so fortunate to attend Calvin and to have the opportunity to pursue our dreams as collegiate athletes," expressed Sanborn. "Participating in something like this reminds us to step back and recognize how lucky we are to do what we love everyday with little worry. Taking advantage of opportunities to pour into our community helps us put things in perspective and remind us of everything we have to be grateful for. These opportunities also aid us in realizing the kind of impact we can make in our community, especially during the holiday season!"