University of Tennessee Athletics
BASEBALL TEAM DONATES TOYS TO MISSION OF HOPE
December 05, 2005 | Baseball
Dec. 5, 2005
The Tennessee baseball team did its part Monday to help ensure that the children of rural Appalachia will have a bright and cheerful holiday season, as a number of Vols players and coaches purchased and donated toys and other items to the Mission of Hope's Christmas Campaign.
With the holidays drawing near, UT assistant coach Larry Simcox recently visited with Mission of Hope Executive Director Emmett Thompson in an effort to find out what sorts of items were needed. The baseball team then spent the funds it had raised accordingly, purchasing fishing poles, baseball gloves and other items for distribution to area youth.
The Mission of Hope concentrates on serving people throughout poverty-stricken rural areas of Appalachia in Southeast Kentucky and Northeast Tennessee. To accomplish its goals of providing assistance, the Mission of Hope seeks supplies, resources, monetary donations and grants from individuals, businesses, corporations, service groups and civic organizations.
The Mission of Hope then distributes donated items and purchased materials to areas of rural Appalachia, where the items are then delivered to needy individuals and families through the support of school resource centers and local ministries. The following are counties in which the Mission of Hope currently has outreach efforts in Tennessee: Campbell, Claiborne, Hancock and Scott; and in Kentucky: Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Harlan, Knott, Knox, Laurel, Leslie, Letcher, Owsley, Perry and Whitley.
Monday's donation to the Mission of Hope is the just the most recent activity on a long list of community-service projects the Vols baseball team has embarked upon this semester. Other activities the team has recently been involved with include donating food to the Manna Food Pantry and visiting families at East Tennessee Children's Hospital and UT Medical Center.
Last month, the baseball team was named UT's 2004-05 Men's Community Service Team of the Year for having the highest percentage of team members attend the highest number of community-service events among all of UT's men's athletic teams.
