The Nicholls Student Athlete Advisory Council will kick off their Pull Tab Community Service Challenge tonight when the Colonels football team hosts Southeastern.
For the initiative, SAAC will collect tabs from the tops of canned beverages. Members will walk around during tailgating outside of tonight’s game, gathering tabs from fans and students to start off the drive, which will go on into next semester and end on April 5.
The players will also be putting boxes around campus and the community to accumulate more tabs after the game. SAAC is hoping to acquire tabs from different festivities planned by students and the university where beverages might be present.
After the conclusion of the drive, the tabs will be recycled and the proceeds will be donated to the Houma chapter of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Pop tab collection is one of the suggested methods for donation to the charity that provides housing for families while their children undergo medical treatment.
“They just want to do the best job they can to raise some money for children’s medical facilities,” associate head baseball coach Chris Prothro said.
Prothro, who oversees the Nicholls branch program, believes the service projects give student athletes the chance to give back to the people who support them, and the players are excited to get the opportunity.
“Our student athletes want to be a part of this,” Prothro said. “This is not something that is mandatory for them. This is something that they want to do.”
The council consists of players from each Nicholls athletic team, who come together weekly to address any concerns or issues facing student athletes and create a better environment for campus sports. Additionally, the players collaborate on different community service projects.
Every school in the Southland Conference is a member of the organization, and all must participate in a variety of service activities, many of which are generated by the players themselves. For added motivation, Prothro said Nicholls teams will engage in some friendly competition to see who can gather the most tabs.
Aside from competition between Nicholls teams, with every team in the conference participating, the drive will feature schools across Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma trying to collect more tabs than the others. The program with the most tabs will receive recognition by the conference.
The Pull Tab Challenge is the main program the players are participating in, but it is not the only one. The SAAC athletes are continuing to brainstorm ideas for future projects, including the possibility of working with Habitat for Humanity in the community.
Junior Marcus Washington plays a big role in the organization and creating those ideas. The running back feels giving back is one of the most important parts of being a student athlete.
“Community service is great,” Washington said. “I feel that is one of the biggest things that athletes need to do instead of just looking out for yourself.”
Senior soccer player Carolyn Noble, who also works with the organization, said Christmas in the Southland event is in the works for December. The players plan to visit a school in Thibodaux and play their sports with children for half of a day. Noble said the players wanted to keep the event local.
“We wanted to do something where the kids were from around here,” Noble said. “They can go to the games after so they can get to know us.”
According to Noble, the athletes owe it to the community that does so much for them and participating in community can motivate others as well.
“It’s important to get involved because you are relatively known on campus,” Noble said. “So if you are doing things, you can act as a leader and get other people to hop on the bandwagon.”