The softball team became involved with the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) to help local homeless veterans, and it all started with a goal set by a senior Longwood University student, Tom Lanigan.
The Longwood University softball team started a clothing drive for homeless veterans in the summer of 2015, and it has expanded to the entire athletics department. All of these proceeds go to McGuire’s Veteran Hospital in Richmond Va.
“A man named Tom Lanigan approached me with it asking if we would consider working with the Longwood Softball team because they were a pretty good group of ladies,” said Tom Hicks, a Vietnam veteran and VFW member. “I said sure we can arrange that.”
Elizabeth McCarthy, a junior softball pitcher at Longwood University, said, “We (McCarthy and Jenna Carnes) filled the back of my SUV and Tom (Lanigan) came and picked it up… he was almost in tears, so it was really cool to see his reaction and how much he appreciated it.”
McCarthy mentioned humbly that the bulk of the donations they had at first was not only from softball but from all of SAAC. SAAC stands for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, an organization run by student-athletes, who do community service and give them a voice in the athletics department. McCarthy is one of the softball representatives; Carnes, a sophomore pitcher, is the other.
She mentioned how she believed the athletic department would be able to make a great impact on this initiative since they are such a close knit community.
McCarthy said that you don’t understand how blessed you are until you donate, when you realize these veterans don’t even have basic toiletries.
“It's really fulfilling. It kind of fills your heart up,” she said.
Their coaches have always encouraged them to become more involved with the community, and they have Assistant Head Coach Kayla Miller to thank for giving them the idea to take this drive to SAAC, according to McCarthy.
“We really owe it to our assistant coach, she’s the person that gets us going, and she’s the type of person that is super selfless and does everything for others… Kayla is the one that really got us into this,” said McCarthy.
Longwood softball head coach Kathy Riley had a personal connection with Lanigan, also playing a role in softball's involvement.
With the majority of Lanigan’s family serving in the military, he has a natural passion for U.S. veterans.
Miller has been friends with Lanagin for roughly 15 years, and she believes that things like what Lanigan brings to the table, such as helping the homeless veterans, are of the utmost importance.
“We felt again, with us being female athletes, that it was very important for us to try to do something that ties us in to other females because we didn’t really know that there were that many female veterans and especially homeless female veterans,” said Riley.
Riley believes that the more that the team knows what other people are experiencing, the more that they can develop their own causes and own understandings about things in life. It’s really about their own growth.
While Riley hopes for the team's growth, Lanigan hopes for the growth of the program for homeless veterans as more people gain interest in donating.
“I hope it keeps growing. I suggested that the Longwood Athletics department challenge the Big South Conference to join,” said Lanigan.
“The girls on the softball have told me some other teams pitched in and helped with the latest collection a few weeks ago," he added. "As far as helping to get the word out, the softball team members have told me they were spreading the word around.”
Hicks noted the importance of VFW's initiative due to the amount of veterans "just barely living from pay check to pay check.
The VFW plans to invite the softball team to one of their meetings that occur every first Thursday of the month so that they can meet the whole team and keep this initiative moving forward.
“We have to remember, we enjoy our freedoms every day because of our brave military men and women, and we very easily overlook the homeless veteran issue. I look forward to continuing to help this effort grow,” said Lanigan.
