By Candace Mettle

mettleca@grinnell.edu

A few sports teams from the College, led by Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), will host a community event, “Fall Fest,” on the track field on Saturday Oct. 8. Not to be confused with the new 10/10 event of the same name, the SAAC sanctioned Fall Fest is meant for elementary and middle school aged kids. Cara Bresnahan ’19, the new track representative for SAAC, has been the head in conceptualizing, organizing and executing this event.

For its first year, Fall Fest will host a race. Afterwards, the kids will participate in autumn themed events, such as pumpkin carving, corn-hole and hot chocolate and apple cider drinking. Once the activities end, the kids will be encouraged to watch the football and men’s soccer game that will both be hosted on campus.

For its debut, Fall Fest will be held by the track, cross country and men’s tennis teams.

“We’re trying to in the future make [Fall Fest] bigger and get more of the community involved,” Bresnahan said. “This way, we’re creating a relationship between the community and athletics.”

Community outreach is one of the purposes of SAAC. All sports team at the College are required to complete and participate in three community service projects throughout the year. Although SAAC pertains to the College and all the institutions that are associated with it, the organization as a whole is affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Bresnahan came up with the idea of a children-oriented event after speaking to Elinor Hanley ‘18, the former track representative to SAAC. To get on SAAC, one must be recommended by a player from their sport. Each team is allocated one representative.

“[Hanley] had mentioned trying to do an event with kids, and I also love working with kids, so we thought of an event that involved kids and the community and all these elements together.

The other element of SAAC sponsored events that Bresnahan wanted to exhibit through Fall Fest is its ability to connect sports teams together.

“In general, I think [SAAC] is a good way to build a community, not just in one particular team, but within all the teams when we are supporting each other and when we are doing these events,” Bresnahan said.

In particular, completing events through SAAC has helped bond the track and cross country into one team, which Bresnahan believes is the true makeup of the running sports here at the College.

“We could get both of our teams [track and field] together through community service and kind of create more of team bonding experience before January, when the track season starts,” Bresnahan said.

Bresnahan also believes that SAAC has had a positive impact on the sports culture at the College.

“Here, sports and athletics are not the main focus, but to have other students with that sports background is nice. [SAAC] is trying to create a community among student-athletes.”

One way that SAAC bridges the divide among student-athletes is through the Pride Cup challenge. Pride Cup is a points game in which teams try to get as many other student-athletes and students to attend their home games, community service projects and other events.

“The idea I think behind it is to get more people at sporting events, you need to get more student-athletes at those sporting events,” said Bresnahan. She also adds that bringing student-athletes in turn may encourage friends of student-athletes to come. Bresnahan has also noticed a strong turnout from community members.

To learn more about SAAC and future events, read the Campus Memo, visit their Facebook page or turn out to games!