Student-athletes deliver Christmas gifts to Omaha families
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Omaha, Nebraska (KPTM) — Student-athletes from both the UNO baseball team and golf team partnered with Mt. Moriah Baptist Church and the 4Urban.org organization to give kids some extra Christmas cheer this Saturday.
“I felt so proud of the UNO athletic department and in this case the baseball team because it was cold and there was a great degree of unknowns for the players and so there would be a lot of ways to excuse yourself from this,” says Preston Love Jr.
The group sorted the toys at the church.
Then the athletes went door to door to deliver some more gifts to families. Social distancing guidelines were followed during the giveaway.
“We got to see some smiles and have some good conversations with some good people and we feel pretty fortunate to have done it,” says Evan Porter, head baseball coach for UNO.
Toys and gifts were given to over 30 kids to help brighten their spirits during the holiday season.
The giveaway was supposed to happen before Christmas, but a COVID exposure prevented everyone from meeting up.
Porter says he was happy to help with the giveaway and says the team would love it if the event became annual.
“When things can get overwhelming it’s a good idea to go out and help somebody and volunteer your time if that’s something you’re interested in doing. So, I think that’s part of what I’d like our program to do more often and to serve our community and do things like we did today. It’s something that we’ll hopefully be doing every year out,” says Porter.
Love says he’s happy the kids got to meet some of the athletes.
“The ultimate plus on this was that the recipients would have a chance to interact with someone they absolutely did not know and maybe did not trust and the givers would have a chance to open up and be sensitized to a community that they did not know,” adds Love.
Both Love and Porter say they hope to create more events like this one in the future.
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