On Saturday April 29th, more than 200 Enid High Student Athletes and dozens of coaches fanned out across the community to help local non-profits, community groups and individuals in the first “Students Serving Others Day.” The idea of a specific day to help the community came from Enid High Athletic Director Billy Tipps. “We did a similar day at a previous school I was at, so I’ve been wanting to do something similar here for the last three years, but had not had the time to get it organized. But this year, with the help of Assistant Athletic Director Lyndsay Watts, we were finally able to get it done, and it was awesome!” said Tipps.
Each team could choose its own project and did not have any specific requirement, other than it had to be service-oriented and helping someone else. Some teams came up with their own projects with ideas from the players or coaches, and for some, the projects were suggested by the athletic department. “The baseball team found their own project, which was helping an individual move from one house to another, that had no other way, which I thought was cool,” said Tipps, “and other groups did all kinds of different things, from helping out at the ESPCA, to a food drive for Loaves & Fishes, to volunteering at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center.”
Vickie Grantz, the Executive Director of the ESPCA, was delighted to have the athletes volunteer. “This is the first time we have had a group of minors volunteer like this, and it was a great experience for us and the animals. They were very professional, worked hard and wore the animals out. The Cross Country and Pom teams helped us get our food pantry organized, pulled weeds in our yard and socialized the dogs and the cats. We’d love to have any of the kids back, and anyone else that would like to volunteer,” said Grantz.
Assistant A.D. Watts said “This was just an amazing way for us to show our appreciation for the community for giving is this beautiful gym and the other facilities and support they have blessed us with. We just wanted to serve them in some way.”
The day went so well, Watts and Tipps believe the event will continue to grow and want to try and do a similar event in the fall and the spring next year. “I just can’t say enough how much we appreciate the coaches and the students giving their extra time to this. We know that they are inundated with things on their plate, so for them to come out on a Saturday morning, with great attitudes and seeing how much they got from giving back was really, really cool,” said Tipps.
