NYIT Lacrosse Team Helps Habitat for Humanity Build a Home

Teammates join together to serve their community.

Old Westbury, NY (Vocus) February 9, 2010

The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) men’s lacrosse team recently spent three days helping to build a house in Elmont, N.Y., with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that provides affordable houses to families in need.

This marks the first year that NYIT partnered with Habitat for Humanity. For head coach Bill Dunn, the experience was unbelievable for both the student-athletes and coaching staff. “We have done a lot of community service during my time here at NYIT,” says Dunn. “But working with Habitat for Humanity, and building a home for a family in need, really made a positive and lasting impact on all of us.”

The student-athletes braved sub-freezing temperatures and completed tasks assigned by Habitat site manager Tom Baccaella. “Having the NYIT lacrosse team on site for six hours at a time really allowed us to accomplish more than we usually do in that same period,” says Baccaella, noting that the student-athletes donated more than double the normally required community service hours of NYIT student athletes each day. “We were able to move assembled scaffolding, which would normally have to be broken down, and their dedication and commitment to getting as much accomplished as possible really kept the project moving.”

For senior lacrosse player Matt Sullivan, the reality of what he and his teammates were accomplishing hit home when he found out who was moving into the house. “This was truly an awesome experience, a great bonding experience for us as a team, but when we found out that we were helping to build a house for a family with four children, it made all of us truly appreciate the effort we put into the project,” says Sullivan.

At NYIT, community service is as much a part of the student-athlete’s college experience as classes and sports. Annually, members of all 10 NYIT intercollegiate athletic programs spend a collective 1,000 hours on community service projects in and around the New York/Long Island area. NYIT teams have volunteered by mentoring children in schools with sports clinics, reading at neighborhood elementary schools, visiting with senior citizens, and cooking dinner at The Ronald McDonald House.

About NYIT
NYIT is the college of choice for more than 15,000 students enrolled in more than 90 specialized courses of study leading to undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees in academic areas such as architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. As a private, nonprofit, independent institution of higher learning, NYIT embraces an educational philosophy of career-oriented professional education for all qualified students and supports applications-oriented research to benefit the greater global community. Students attend classes at NYIT’s campuses in Manhattan and Long Island, as well as online and in a number of programs throughout the world. To date, more than 81,500 alumni have earned degrees at NYIT. For more information, visit http://www.nyit.edu.

Contact:
Briana Samuels
Communications Specialist
646.273.6022

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