Thanks for the Support!

Dear Editor:Honestly, I have been playing for SIU for three years now and my teammates and I get more grief from other teams than anyone, but I’m not here to complain because most of them do not understand why we get to travel to nice places like Hawaii. I wouldn’t either if I were them. We are a small program in SIU Athletics, but we go on the nicest trips. I don’t know another team that travels as well as we do. Just this year our team flew 5 times and traveled to places like Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Honolulu.

Every year we have an annual fund-raising event, held at Midland Hills, with many great supporters. Our program WOULDN’T be what it was if it wasn’t for them and I know my coach would have left by now. This past Saturday was this year’s fund-raiser, which broke another record at over $51,000, which is 2.5 TIMES what our budget gives us. My coach would not be able to recruit and bring in good players and our farthest trip would probably be to Murray State, without the money that we raise. So many support us in the community and I personally cannot thank you enough. It truly blows my mind how wonderful our supporters are.

The amount of time and energy that our fund-raising committee and Coach put into making the event a success is unreal. Our committee helps us completely voluntarily and days preceding the event will spend time late into the night (often it’s midnight) working hard. Besides donations and our fundraising committee, we get many volunteers to help with the event.

I’m sure I can speak for Coach and my teammates when I say “THANK YOU.” A special thanks to Tres Hombres and Denny Kortkamp. Thanks for the support, thanks for the donations, and thanks for another year of successful fund raising. I have one more year of eligibility left and my best memories on trips because of the support of these wonderful people. We love you!