Sam Houston State Donates School Supplies to Local Elementary

Sam Houston State Donates School Supplies to Local Elementary

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HUNTSVILLE, Texas - For the third consecutive year, student-athletes from all 17 sports teams and the athletic training staff at Sam Houston State University are working to see that more than 60 under-privileged children at Sam Houston Elementary School will have school supplies for the coming year.

The project is part of the Southland Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's "Twelve Days of Christmas" program in which each of the 12 university SAAC groups in the league took one day of the holiday season to spend in an activity benefiting their local community.

Two years ago, members of Sam Houston's SAAC group met with teachers at Sam Houston Elementary to find a need to fill for the school.

"The teachers all voiced their concern for students in need who could not afford basic school supplies," project director Courtney Schoenemann, an SHSU softball team member, said. "So we got a list of the needed supplies and each team selected an item"

Each Christmas, the vice principal at Sam Houston Elementary provides the SHSU SAAC group a list of the supplies students run low on each year and that are needed in the classroom.

"These children really need our assistance to help replenish their school supplies," Schoenemann said. "It's exciting to know that our efforts will make an impact for these kids in order for them to make it through the rest of the school year."

Among the supplies gathered and the teams responsible have been Kleenex (tennis/athletic trainers), No. 2 wooden pencils (softball/baseball), hand sanitizer (track and field), wide rule notebook paper (soccer/volleyball), braded folders (men's and women's golf), scissors with rounded edges (men's and women's basketball), glue sticks (bowling) and boxes of 24 crayons (football).

"It is such a thrill presenting the students and teachers with their supplies," Schoeneman said. "Following last year's presentation, all the members of the team are excited to be able to continue this annual Christmas tradition for SAAC this year."