Men's soccer team supports school supplies drive for Canton Harbor High School
For the second year in a row, Coach Brian Stock and his team participated in a school supplies drive for Canton Harbor High School, which helped incoming students come to their first day of school ready to learn without the burden of purchasing supplies.
“Last year, each team member came to camp with a shoebox full of supplies and our team captains delivered them to the school,” Stock said. “This year I wanted to do something different, to make their service even more tangible.”
All players brought $5 to training camp and groups divided up the shopping to buy as much as possible with the pool of funds they had. Then the entire team visited Canton Harbor and met with Principal Steven Nichols, who shared success stories of their at-risk students, many of whom have been forced into adulthood prematurely because of their circumstances.
“When our students enroll, we are fortunate to be able to tell them to come as they are, that we will supply what they need,” said Nichols. “Their job at this time is to learn because they have enough on their plates to worry about.”
The public charter school is only a couple miles from campus, and Malone students benefited from seeing the need firsthand.
“Before our service project with Canton Harbor, I hadn’t looked that closely at the community in our backyard,” said Nick Astalos ’17. “Meeting Mr. Nichols and some of the students really opened my eyes—seeing what they’ve experienced has made me grateful for my childhood and opportunities.”
Stock and Nichols are hopeful to continue the partnership in the years to come.
“Both Canton Harbor and Malone are striving to make a difference in the community,” said Nichols. “Service and school supplies is an easy place to start.”