CYO volunteering: Do good, quietly

For the past several weeks, members of our men’s XC team have gone over to Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie to assist in the CYO cross country program. Following is a note from the Dutchess County CYO director after the last week of the program:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Please let your student-athletes know how appreciative I am of their time and efforts they gave to the CYO Cross Country program. Each week several Marist College Cross Country runners would show up at our practices and offer running tips, instructions, encouragement, smiles and laughter with our CYO participants. I am not sure if they realized the impact they have had on the young runners by sharing an hour of their busy schedules with us each week. The kids were very enthusiastic about running with the Marist runners. All of the Marist College student-athletes were respectful, encouraged the young runners during drills, willing participants during instructions and games. They were fantastic! These young men really represented the Marist College Cross Country team very well. It says a lot about this program. This partnership has been a great experience for everyone involved. I appreciate you for making the connection with the program and allowing the student-athletes to assist with practices each week. Hopefully we will see them in the spring! Best of luck to them as well as the team the remainder of the school year!

As I’ve noted here before, one of the core values of the Marist Brothers (who founded our college) is “do good quietly.” Our young men exemplify this in their actions.