Record volunteer numbers for 7th Annual AWC Day of Champions
383 dig in to help desert southwest and shatter records in annual Matador community assistance event
Yuma, Arizona – August 19, 2011 — Arizona Western College is proud to announce that a record number of volunteers participated in today’s 7th Annual AWC Day of Champions across Yuma and Imperial Counties. Arizona Western College and the Matador Athletic Association salute all of the 383 volunteers that gave their time and energy this morning and afternoon. It is the third straight year that the volunteer number for the day has exceeded 350 people.
The total of 383 volunteers in 2011 shatters the previous record of 365 set back in 2009, and nearly thirty more volunteers that participated last August. Nearly 200 members of the AWC Athletic Department participated in this event. The contingent included AWC Athletic DirectorJerry Smith; head coaches Patrick Cunningham,Tom Minnick, Nikki Bethurum, Jason Smith, Drew Keehn, Charles Harral and Tiffany Minnick; assistant coachesJerry Dominguez, Tony Mitchell, Josh Brewer, Michael Orthmann, Miguel Villarreal, Carter Roe, Leo Lozano, Oliver Gibson, James Magee, Kyle Isaacs, Regina Schlichter, Kyle Carothers, Jordan McCavitt and Ron VanWhy; athletic trainer Jo Jo Elliott; athletic secretaryCindy Evans, athletic equipment managerElias Escobarand AWC Sports Information Director Jim Howell). They were joined today by several members of the AWC faculty and administration, including AWC Dean of Student Development Mary Kay Harton, AWC Director of Maintenance & Operations Steve Eckert, AWC Director of Risk Management Sharon Register, AWC Director of College Assistance Migrant Program Rosalia Delgado, AWC Travel Accountant Karyn VanWhy, AWC Student Activities Specialist Shara Roberts, AWC Residential Life Operations Specialist Crystal Fell and AWC Campus Life Administrative Assistant Wendy Moore.
Standing side-by-side with that contingent were over 80 employees of the four Yuma County Wal-Mart stores, 23 from Sam’s Club, 20 from Outback Steakhouse, 4 from Pepsi-Cola of Yuma as well as approximately 15 members of the AWC facilities staff and photography department and Sodexo-AWC Dining Service and 9 bus drivers. The volunteers dug in and handled 32 different community projects for non-profit agencies throughout Yuma, Wellton, Somerton, the Foothills and El Centro, California, over the span of just over 4 hours. Agencies such as Amberly’s Place, American Red Cross-Imperial Valley Chapter, City of Yuma Parks & Recreation, Precious Treasures, Girl Scouts of America-Rio Colorado, the Yuma County Library District, Crossroads Mission, Crossroads Mission Thrift Store, Habitat for Humanity, the Yuma Community Food Bank, the Salvation Army, Boys & Girls’ Clubs of Yuma, Greater Foothills Helping Hands, the Town of Wellton and the Yuma Conservation Garden opened the doors, gates, windows, driveways, back yards, side roads, warehouses, storage units, washes and hallways to allow the volunteers to help them complete some very crucial tasks. “It’s amazing how everything seems to come together, and how anything that might even remotely seem like a problem gets solved very quickly because of the teamwork we have throughout the day,” said AWC Athletic Director Jerry Smith. “We even had our buses get out of the parking lot (at ‘The House’-AWC’s home gymnasium, the launching pad for the volunteers this morning) a little late this morning, and yet the cooperation and positive energy our volunteers generated all day made us finish all of our jobs earlier than ever before. It’s all about the people who are involved in this, and I get a little more amazed every year at what they accomplish.”
KBLU, KTTI, and KQSR provided public service announcements in the weeks leading up to the event; Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club provided breakfast bags and ice chests for the volunteers this morning; Southwest Gas provided equipment and work gloves for the volunteers; Pepsi-Cola of Yuma provided water throughout the day; and the day culminated at Yuma’s Outback Steakhouse, whose staff provided all of the volunteers to a great meal and great service after the jobs were completed.
