<span class="photocredit"></span><br>Sport fandom is all about building community in the professional sport industry, but most sport takes place within our communities. From a financial perspective, participatory sports accounted for 63.5% of the global sport market in 2023 and in the United States, a record 242 million people played a sport or took part in a fitness activity. This growth is fueled by basketball’s continued popularity and pickleball’s sustained double-digit growth.<br>From a societal perspective, participation creates valuable shared experiences, fosters important social networks, and helps people maintain healthy lifestyles. Therefore, from an educational perspective it’s important for our students to understand what makes successful and sustainable sport participation programming. This approach expands career opportunities and more importantly, allows students to see that you can do well by doing good. So, this month I would like to focus on how the McCormack Department of Sport Management uses sport to serve our local community while preparing our students to change the world.<br>At the 2000 inaugural Laureus World Sports Awards, Nelson Mandela famously said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”<br>While it’s a tall task to change the world, we challenge our students to change their world, and they consistently meet that challenge. To increase their impact, proceeds from previous student-run events have been reinvested to launch Service Through Sport, a non-profit initiative that makes it easy for students to find sport-related volunteer activities, log hours and get rewarded. It also makes it easy for local sport organizations like Amherst Baseball, Massachusetts State Policy Unity Basketball League, Rays of Hope Walk & Run Toward the Cure of Breast Cancer, and the Daffodil Run to post opportunities for college students to volunteer. Our students manage the website, coordinate and advertise the opportunities, facilitate carpooling, verify and sign any necessary volunteer forms, and, at the end of each school year, recognize those students giving the most of their time.<br>This initiative has created a special relationship between our students and the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) Unity Basketball League, thanks to Sport Management alumnus Trooper Tom Sullivan (Class of 2000). This league is a perfect example of using the power of sport to change your world. This program serves as a bridge, fostering connections between kids and adults, coaches, and police officers. This interaction helps break down barriers and build trust, showing young people that law enforcement officers are approachable role models who are there to support and guide them. <br>This Unity Basketball League is now the official philanthropic partner of our student-run Pioneer Valley Tip-Off (PVTO) presented by Oak View Group. The League receives all proceeds from the 50/50 raffle, raffle prize, the silent auction, and pre-event fundraising, as well as 50 complimentary tickets and chance for the Team Unity athletes to showcase their skills in a halftime show on the Mullins Center court. As the 13th annual PVTO came to an end last Sunday, and the students were able to donate just over $1,000 to this league for the second straight year.<br>In addition to the financial contribution, our students make a time commitment to this league. It serves as a place for our students to get experience running game nights, creating promotions, helping with social media and content creation, writing press releases, scheduling and coordinating facilities, and helping to connect additional community partners like Hooplandia to help amplify this important league. We regularly have around 20 students helping run various operational aspects of the 10-week fall and spring leagues that rotate to different Boys & Girls Clubs and middle schools across western Massachusetts.<br>For our students, the highlight of each season is the special sport management night where they get to teach middle school students about college opportunities while at the same time building personal connections. The fall 2024 event was held on Nov. 14 at JFK Middle School in Northampton and featured a variety of basketball contests with prizes, pickup games, music, and pizza. These fun events are completely free and the communication between young people, college students, and police officers is something that is difficult to replicate without the fun, competitive setting that sports provide. Nights like these show the power of sport Mandela refers to first-hand, using basketball as the common language, breaking down barriers, uniting the local community and inspiring hope in each participant, volunteers included.<br>Article continues after...<br>Cross|Word<br>Flipart<br>Typeshift <br>SpellTower<br>Really Bad Chess<br>Service Through Sport is looking for more organizations and events to work with. If interested, please go to www.servicethroughsport.com to learn more and register your organization today!<br> <!-- end of body grafs --> <br>12-18-2024 10:07 PM<br>12-18-2024 9:17 PM<br>12-18-2024 5:41 PM<br>12-18-2024 3:58 PM<br> <ul> <li><a href="/Reader-Services/Terms-Of-Service">Terms & Conditions</a> <li><a href="/Reader-Services/Privacy-Policy">Privacy Policy</a> <li><a href="/Reader-Services/About-Us">About Us</a> <li><a href="/Reader-Services/Accessibility">Accessibility</a> </ul> <br> <h3>Social Media</h3> • <a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Recorder/326310256952">Facebook</a><br /> • <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/TheRecorderNews">X</a><br /> • <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/recorder01301">Youtube</a><br /> <br>By using this site, you agree with our use of cookies to personalize your experience, measure ads and monitor how our site works to improve it for our users<br>Copyright © 2016 to 2024 by Newspapers of Massachusetts, Inc. 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