Saturday, December 19, 2009

Helping Hands


Last week the Oberlin College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and all 22 Oberlin athletics programs teamed up with Oberlin Community Services to purchase gifts for six different families in Oberlin through the "Helping Hands" project. The teams combined to purchase a total of 72 gifts, the largest amount of gifts ever in the history of "Helping Hands." In addition to providing gifts for select families, the athletics department and the rest of the campus delivered 80 pounds of nonperishable food to Oberlin Community Services.

Read more:

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A Thanksgiving Feast (Or Two)


My Thanksgiving actually consisted of going to 3 different Thanksgivings. The first is right across the street at my nana's house. It’s a huge gathering of my dad's entire side. Like other families, we have the stuffing and turkey and cranberry sauce, but we also have a family favorite - hand rolled sushi (with a little extra ginger for me). I'm pretty sure I ate at least a roll or two by myself!
My second Thanksgiving is at my mom's side. There, we ate some yummy dessert - pumpkin pie. Also, we played this pretty cool game called Bananagrams. It's like Scrabble, but without a board, and each player competes individually. You start with 21 tiles, and you try connecting all the tiles to make a bunch of different words (like a crossword or Scrabble board). The person who uses all of their tiles first yells “peel!” and every player must grab one more tile. This continues until all of the tiles are used. I am proud to say I won the inaugural game of Bananagrams.The final Thanksgiving is at my best friend Samm's house. We're family by choice, which makes it even more special to see her on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Usually, I end at her house with some sweet potato pie and maybe some appetizers, like crab dip. We also play a game with dice called Left, Right, Center. It involves putting money in and out of a pot. The winner ends up making bank. This year, Samm won one of the rounds and made about $30.

Despite all of the fun, it's good to be back at school. I missed my school/softball family too much to want to stay at home. Plus, it's time to start gearing up for the fun that is known as finals...

XoXo,

Sam Dudzinski, #7

A True Champion

About two weeks ago, the Ohio softball community lost a true friend in Stefanie Spielman. Stefanie (whose husband is a former Ohio State University and Buffalo Bills linebacker) battled breast cancer for twelve years.

Each fall, the Ohio State University softball team hosts the Ohio Collegiate Charity Classic that benefits the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at the James Cancer Hospital.

The Oberlin College softball team has participated in the Charity Classic for two years; it will continue to honor Stefanie and her valiant fight against breast cancer. According to Linda Kalafatis, Head Softball Coach at Ohio State, this event was one of Stefanie’s favorites.

For an inspirational article about Stefanie, click here. Go here to learn more about Stefanie's fund.

Our hearts go out to Stefanie's family and all those affected by breast cancer.