Teaming up to bring joy to children - Westfair Communications

Children at the Cardinal Shehan Center in Bridgeport received toys collected by University of Bridgeport athletic teams.

University of Bridgeport athletics teams helped ensure that Christmas was merry for children at the Cardinal Shehan Center in Bridgeport. The center serves 4,500 low-income young people in lower Fairfield County annually through various recreational, sports, social and educational programs.

The student-athletes collected about 100 games, trucks, puzzles, and stuffed animals at men”™s and women”™s home basketball games and delivered them to the center in time for its annual Christmas party.

“Our department as a whole thought it would be important to give back to the community; everyone pitched in,” said college Assistant Athletics Director Sara Richwine.

Terry O”™Connor, executive director of the Cardinal Shehan Center, said, “We”™re very grateful to UB, its students, and the coaches who got involved.”

The toy drive was just one community service activity by the student-athletes in the fourth quarter of the year. They tutored students at Roosevelt School in Bridgeport, hosted a Halloween party for area children, ran free after-school sports clinics at Wakeman Boys & Girls Club, and participated in other outreach campaigns.