Bringing the Community Together in More Ways Than One

By Kaylin Moriarty
Special to UNHWildcats.com

As the holiday season approached, the University of New Hampshire's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) hosted its annual Hoops 4 Hunger 3-on-3 basketball tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The UNH community filled Lundholm Gymnasium to take part in some friendly competition and raise money for families in need throughout the Durham community.

SAAC catered pizza, snacks and drinks for all in attendance and even prepared prizes for the night's winners from their local sponsors Coffee Craving, Breaking New Grounds, Local B Studio, Fry'd Late Night and Kostal Kooks.

"We've been doing Hoops 4 Hunger for I think probably about 10 years now and it's just one of those cornerstone events we have at SAAC every year," said Ava Boutilier, SAAC co-president and goaltender for UNH women's hockey. "It's super important for us to give back to the community, especially around Thanksgiving time when there's so many hungry families, we want to make sure we do our part to support those families."

SAAC organized both the 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which required a $20 registration fee for each team, and a half-court shot contest, which cost $1 to partake in. The proceeds for both events went towards a donation to the Cornucopia Food Pantry located just outside of the UNH campus.

"Donations make such a difference to our organization during the holiday food basket time," said Alissa Megee, co-executive director of the Waysmeet Center and Cornucopia Food Pantry. "There is such a need this time of year especially because of inflation and all the struggles that people are going through, so it makes a huge impact."

With a total of 17 teams taking to the courts the event saw "a record turnout," according to Boutilier, and SAAC was able to raise a total of $342 for the Cornucopia Food Pantry.

SAAC member and UNH women's soccer goalkeeper Sally Rainey expressed the importance of not only supporting the local community through Hoops 4 Hunger, but also uniting the community at UNH.

"This is also really important because it connects everyone on campus together which is something we don't get to do very often," said Rainey. "This is a really amazing event where there are people who play sports, there are people who don't play sports, there's people from all different grades, which is really cool."

Sarah Ross, UNH Assistant Athletic Director of Student-Athlete Wellness and Academic Support Services, helped oversee this year's Hoops 4 Hunger event. Ross also drew attention to this event's ability to bring the UNH campus together and has hopes for what student-athletes will take away from attending events such as this.

"The biggest thing for me in my role is teaching student-athletes that they are more than just athletes," said Ross. "They are here because they are Division I athletes, competing at the highest level, and they are doing great in the classroom, but it is really important that we get their holistic development while they are here. Having these kinds of events where they are fun, engaging and we can get so many people out are important, but the underlying factor is community service and making an impact on the people around them, if we can do that on a micro level here then when they leave, our student-athletes can start impacting so many more people and use what they learned here."

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