BENNINGTON, Vt. — They may seem like simple acts on the surface, but the activities conducted by the Southern Vermont College women’s soccer team over the last couple weeks will go a long way in brightening some holiday seasons for others in both the Bennington and Capital District areas.
The Mountaineers participated in the Spirit of Sharing project through the Catamount Rotary Club, assisted by the Agency of Human Services DCF, to provide gifts for local children while also making cards to help surpass the wish of a young Schenectady, N.Y. girl who had tragedy strike her and her family.
SVC assistant coach Shawnee Webster ‘13, who is a therapeutic case manager at United Counseling Service in Bennington, learned about the Spirit of Sharing program run by the Catamount Rotary Club, which partnered with the Agency of Human Services DCF, through her work at UCS. The team jumped right on board, deciding to participate in the project instead of doing a ‘Secret Santa’ event amongst themselves.
"It was heartwarming to see that all of us didn't even have to think twice about doing this,” commented SVC senior captain Katelyn Raymond (Bristol, Conn.). “As soon as [head] Coach [Michael] Zauzig brought up the idea in one of our meetings, everyone's head was nodding ‘yes’ to the suggestion. It made me feel great as a person to know that I would be one of the reasons for putting a smile on someone’s face at this time of the year."
The Spirit of Sharing project gives a nameless list of desired items by local families to anyone who is interested in taking part, detailing the children’s genders, ages, and clothing sizes to help in the gift purchasing process. Donators are asked to wrap the presents, label them with the family code, and bring them to the DCF offices. The gifts are then either delivered to the families by DCF Family and Economic Services staff members or picked up directly at the offices. While this year’s program deadline has already passed, anyone interested in getting involved in the future can get more information by emailing spiritofsharing.bennington@gmail.com.
"It felt amazing to know that we could give back to a family and that what we gave them will be appreciated on a different level than we appreciate things,” noted Southern Vermont freshman Vanessa Kendall (Coventry, Conn.), the Mountaineers’ student manager.
When the team members gathered to wrap their purchased presents, they also took out some time to make handmade Christmas cards to support the wish made by Sa’fyre Terry of Schenectady, N.Y., an eight-year-old who was badly burned and lost her father and three siblings in a 2013 fire. After her aunt, who Sa’fyre now lives with, brought home a tree that holds 100 Christmas cards this year, the youngster’s only holiday wish was to get cards from around the world to fill it up; with the help of the Internet, Sa’fyre’s wish spread quickly and resulted in her receiving over 300,000 letters and cards, more than 3,000 packages, and a trip to Disney World as of December 15 (Source: abcnews.com). The Mountaineers were delighted to do something so simple that ultimately went so far in helping bring joy to others this holiday season, taking time out of their studies to get into the holiday spirit.
“I’m overly pleased that these young ladies wanted to get the gifts and send the cards,” noted Zauzig, “especially for people they don’t know. We constantly talk about trying to improve the world around us; more and more, we are practicing what we preach. I am extremely happy that it is actually happening, and I’m proud of the team for stepping up.”