Alma, Mich. - Alma College has earned the NCAA Team Works Helper Helper Community Service Competition award for the athletic department's efforts in community outreach this school year thus far. This is the second time Alma has been honored with the award.

Over 500 Alma student-athletes logged nearly 3,000 hours of community service, including writing Christmas cards, shopping for gifts, and packing and sending them to military troops in tandem with a local insurance company. Student-athletes have also been involved with volunteering at the local Masonic Home, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Habitat for Humanity, among others. Much of these efforts were led by Alma's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). 

"So many people have given to us throughout our lives, and we're grateful and blessed to be in the position we are now to give back to them," said track and field student-athlete Jared Fleming, president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and member of SAAC. "It's the least we can do to help out in the local community."

NCAA Team Works and Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform, launched the community service competition to recognize student-athletes who give back to their communities, according to the NCAA website. The competition, which ran from September through November, is based on the number of service hours completed and the number of participating student-athletes.

Previously this year, the women's lacrosse team has been honored with the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III Team Community Awareness Award for logging 741 community service hours, the most of any DIII women's lacrosse program during the 2017-18 academic year.

For more information on NCAA Team Works, click here. 

(Information provided by Alma College athletic department)