Tigers In The Community

reLAX to SQUASH hunger

January 13, 2009

Above are the 2009 Princeton Women's Squash team members in Egypt

The Princeton Women’s Squash team and Women’s Lacrosse team share common goals in addition to being successful academically and athletically. Members of each team wanted to increase their community service outreach efforts and do their part to fight world hunger in the process. Both teams agreed they strive to have an impact on their local community, and as a result have been working on a series of small fundraisers designed to reduce hunger in their immediate surroundings.

The Squash and Lacrosse team combined forces to offer two-minute back massages for Princeton students at the Frist Campus Center during the month of November. The initiative was set-up in order to provide Thanksgiving dinner to underprivileged families in Trenton. Additionally, the teams also went apple picking in the fall and donated the apples to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK), where both teams put in volunteer work hours.

In addition to staving off hunger, the Princeton Women’s Lacrosse and Princeton Women’s Squash team also worked through the “Spirit of the Holidays” project, and sponsored a family living with HIV/AIDS who are in dire financial need. The “Spirit of the Holidays” is an organization dedicated to helping families living with the deadly disease, and was started by Barb Previ’s (Soccer, Lacrosse) aunt in 2004.

The teams raised enough money from their massage fundraiser to purchase every item on the ‘wish list’ of the South Jersey family they sponsored. They also went above and beyond the call of duty by donating money they had left-over toward the organization! Lisa O’Neill, Executive Director of “Spirit of the Holidays”, made the following comment about the Princeton coaching staff when asked about the work the student-athletes did: “I am so very grateful to you for inspiring such wonderful, young ladies to be great students and great athletes, but more importantly to be great and caring individuals who are so willing to give back to their community this way!” Lisa wanted to give special thanks to the co-organizers of the project, Maggie O’Toole '09 (Squash), Emily Tiernan '10 (Lacrosse, Hockey), and Barb Previ '12 (Soccer, Lacrosse).