Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/15/12
From Press Release
The Marquette University men’s lacrosse team took a break from their studies during finals week to spread some holiday cheer Thursday, delivering donated children’s toys to benefit Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
In the spirit of giving, the Golden Eagles men’s lacrosse team promoted a semester-long toy drive. The result was thousands of dollars’ worth of donated toys and money collected that was used to purchase gifts from local department stores.
“When we were packing up the toys, we were all talking about how much fun we had with this stuff when we were younger,” said MU freshman midfielder Blaine Fleming, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Prep. “It’s really cool anytime we can do something like this for the community.”
“Our kids did a great job getting the word out on campus, and it was something that the community was able to rally around,” said Marquette head coach Joe Amplo, who mentioned the idea came from seeing the success other collegiate lacrosse programs have had with similar service activities.
About a dozen student-athletes and members of the MU coaching staff loaded into vans Thursday morning to help deliver the gifts, which had to be hauled to the drop location in a university bus full of children’s toys.
“Marquette is about service and giving and being excellent in everything that we do,” Amplo said. “This was an important initiative for us to establish our culture as a program, fit in within the community and stand for everything that Marquette stands for.”
MU men’s lacrosse opens its first official season of competition in February 2013.
