[oqeygallery id=41 width=675 height=380]
Photos by Cydney McFarland
A tunnel of maroon and gold waited at the corner of North Third Avenue and West Washington Street for the flood of pink that engulfed the streets of downtown Phoenix on Sunday. The group of nearly 100 ASU student athletes came out to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to volunteer and support their community.
Each year as a part of the Sun Devils Serve program, freshmen student athletes from almost every athletics team volunteer at the race by setting up and working a water station for runners.
Natalie Burgess, a former ASU diver, organizes the event. She said she believes it is a great way to introduce the new students to the service aspect of the Sun Devil Way, a set of core values ASU encourages for its student body.
“It’s a good event for them because not only are we giving back to the community, but also because it’s important for them to realize there are people suffering and to be appreciative,” Burgess said.
Supervising the young athletes are academic success coaches who teach the Student-Athlete Success class, which is geared specifically toward the needs of freshman student athletes. The curriculum focuses on time management, learning to utilize university’s resources and upholding Sun Devil traditions.
Sophia Sledge, academic coach of the women’s soccer and men’s track and field teams, has been bringing students to the event for the past five years.
“We’ve had students in the past who are really connected to it, and it’s a good thing for the community,” said Sledge. “Plus, I think they enjoy it. When it first starts you only see ten or twenty people at a time, but when it starts to get super full they start to understand the impact.”
Freshman football player and track and field runner Michael Ingrassia has found the class extremely helpful, and as a business law major and student of Barrett, the Honors College with football practice five days a week, he is getting used to early mornings.
“Once I get up and get moving, I’ll be alright,” Ingrassia said. “It’s good to be out here though. I can wake up at five once in a while to help out.”
Dressed for the occasion in pink-out jerseys, the entire women’s basketball team also came out. Upperclassmen Haley Parsons, Deja Mann and Joy Burke explained the team’s special ties to the cause. Through the nonprofit foundation Friends of Jaclyn, the team sponsors Dani Khones, a young girl who suffers from a terminal brain tumor.
“She’s part of our team,” junior marketing major Burke said. “It’s stuff like Race for the Cure that does benefit cancer that we want to be here for too.”
Like many others who participate in the event, senior guard Hayley Parsons has a family member who has struggled with and overcome breast cancer.
“It’s so powerful,” she said. “Everyone has some connection with breast cancer. I feel like the least we can do is give water back to these people. It’s such a big deal; it’s so cool to even be a part of it.”
As veterans of the event, the girls tried to explain to their new teammates the impact the event can have, even on bystanders.
“It’s just funny because they have no idea how many people actually come,” Burke said. “Just to see the people, how dressed up they get, and how big of a deal it really is to them … it’s exciting.”
Contact the reporter at lauren.saria@asu.edu
