Wake Forest Men's Soccer Earns Helper Helper Team Community Service Challenge Title
4/15/2022 12:53:00 PM | Men's Soccer
Behind a 100 percent participation rate, Wake Forest men’s soccer made an impact on the local community and beyond for the 2021-22 academic year.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest men's soccer has been named the 2021-22 Helper Helper Team Community Service Challenge Champions. Since Aug. 1, 2021, the team has logged more than 950 hours of community service for 26 opportunities alongside 15 organizations.
More than 300 NCAA universities use Helper Helper to track the work they are doing in the community, including 29 power-five institutions.
"I am so proud of the way our program has embodied the Pro Humanitate spirit throughout this year to make such a positive and resounding impact in the Triad community and beyond," said head coach Bobby Muuss. "After a year of uncertainty and social distancing, our student-athletes were dedicated to finding ways to engage with the local community that comes out and supports us each fall at Spry Stadium. In total, we have logged 957 hours of community service over the past eight months while working with numerous organizations whose missions are to create change for the greater good."
"One of Wake Forest Athletics' core pillars is providing value to the University, Winston-Salem and Triad Communities, and through our team's servant leadership – whether it be building beds for children in need or helping raise funds for free and reduced price mammograms for breast cancer patients – we have found ways to make an everlasting impact and encourage others to consider doing the same."
Throughout the year, the team partnered with the following organizations to give back including:
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The Skip Prosser Literacy Program
Additionally, the program helped raise more than $20,000 in total funds combined for A Bed and A Book to build and deliver beds, Second Harvest to have a healthy and hunger-free Northwest North Carolina, H.O.P.E. to provide nutritious meals for families in need and the Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center to support free and reduced price mammograms for breast cancer patients in the region.
Redshirt sophomore Cole McNally was a driving force behind Hop for H.O.P.E. last month. He said seeing the team's contributions has been motivation for continued service.
"For me, to have the opportunity to really just help the greater community is such a blessing in and of itself," McNally said. "Because in life, when you're able to make a difference and help others and serve needs that need to be met, it makes the world a better place. I'm really just grateful and proud of this team and the way that we've really stepped up and looked to find opportunities to help the greater community. I think it will really motivate us to continue serving others going forward."
Sophomore Hosei Kijima, who helped serve with The Salvation Army during the holiday season alongside freshman teammate Ryan Fessler, added: "I think it's important to help people who don't have much, as I'm very fortunate to be at such a great university. If I was in that position, I would be really grateful if someone from the Wake Forest soccer team came and helped me. So I try to reciprocate that feeling as much as possible."
One of the most impactful programs that the team was involved with was A Bed and A Book. The team assisted in purchasing and assembling beds for children in need while also providing them a book.
Seeing the happiness it brought each time a bed was delivered and built by the team touched sophomore Prince Amponsah.
"It was special because it almost felt like it could have been me or it could have been somebody that I knew back home that was getting the help they needed," Amponsah said. "So I think that just put it in perspective of how important it is when you're in a place of privilege to be able to help out. Every single time I just saw so much joy come from people."
"I spoke to Coach and I told him this experience this spring has just been so unique and so special to see. One of the times I was crying after A Bed and A Book because I come from that same kind of background and when you see that it's just like, well, there's a lot of problems in this world. But if we can come together as a team and as a university and be able to help out I think that's what's ultimately most important."
