The Augustana women’s lacrosse team added to their growing number of service projects by helping spread holiday cheer to children with incarcerated parents through the Mentoring Connections Program.
“The Mentoring Connections Program and Madison-Area Urban Ministry work in restorative justice, which can take on a couple of different avenues,” said head coach Meredith Newman. “So, the Mentoring Connections Program works specifically with children who have a parent or parents that are incarcerated currently. They also have another branch that works with reentry.”
This will be Newman’s fourth year of partnership with Mentoring Connections and the team’s first time working with the organization.
“We always do a service opportunity during Christmas, and are main things are the Friends of Jaclyn program and Operation Christmas,” said senior attacker Rebecca Pollard. “Our coach had this connection, and so we talked as a team if we wanted to do it and send some of the money we raised for our other two service projects toward Mentoring Connections as well.”
Every year, Mentoring Connections holds its annual holiday party where donated gifts are distributed to families with an imprisoned parent. Suggested donations included: sports equipment, racially diverse dolls or action figures, gift cards, and gift warp or holiday decorations.
This past Friday, Dec 11, the women’s lacrosse team provided gifts for 15 of the 75 children in attendance at the party. Newman said it was pretty substantial.
As a team, both players and Newman believe it’s important for their team and other Augustana athletes to give back to the community around them.
“At the most basic level, being a part of a team is being a part of something greater than yourself,” said Newman. “And so, by doing service projects, we then connect the team as being a part of something larger too, the Augustana community. Giving back to the greater community in the area puts a lot of things into perspective.”