Cardinal Stritch: Champions of Character Review

MILWAUKEE, WI--Over the course of the 2021-22 school year, the Cardinal Stritch student-athletes and coaches volunteered in and around the Greater Milwaukee Area through multiple community service projects. Through these projects, the student-athletes were able to live out the five core values that the NAIA has named the Champion of Character. These five values include integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership.

Every year the entire Cardinal Stritch community (Students, staff and faculty) participate in Stritch Service Day. SSD takes place every October and sends several volunteers to multiple different locations throughout the Milwaukee area. These locations include nature preserves, Feeding America, The Hunger Task Force, senior centers and various schools. This year, the softball team worked at Feeding America, the men's volleyball team went to Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful Inc., the women's volleyball team went to the Mequon Nature Preserve, the women's basketball team did cleanup at the Schlitz Audobun Nature Center and both soccer teams split up to conquer the Urban Ecology Center and multiple locations listed above.

In addition to Stritch Service Day, the women's basketball team also helped serve a meal at the Milwaukee Women's Shelter. Earlier in the fall semester, they also hosted a car wash on campus to help raise funds for supplies to serve the meal.

The softball team volunteered at the Salvation Army, Wisconin Human Society as well as Ground Work Milwaukee.

Men's and women's soccer helped provide training sessions at Street Dreams Soccer Academy. Street Dreams is a non-profit organization co-founded by a Stritch Soccer Alum that aims to "provide the youth in the city of Milwaukee with a soccer experience that inspires leadership, integrity, and service to others through mentorship, guidance, and a family-like culture." In addition to helping with training sessions, they hosted kids from the Academy at the first annual "Street Dreams Night".

"It is incredibly important for our student-athletes to get out into the community and give in anyway they can. Not only are they practicing the NAIA Champion of Character values but also the Franciscan Values that Cardinal Stritch uses as focal points for each year, this years value being creating a caring community." said Dan Kuklinski, Cardinal Stritch University Director of Athletics.