March 5, 2010

By Andrea Bradley
Student Assistant, NIU Athletics Media Relations

DeKalb, Ill. - As the snow starts to melt in DeKalb, the Northern Illinois men's golf team eagerly waits for the start of the spring portion of their 2009-10 season.

Each year, months of snow and ice force the Huskies indoors, where they have to find new ways to fill their schedules before returning to competition in the spring. Fortunately, the golfers had no trouble finding a way to work as a team during the off-season. This past year, the Huskies used their indoor vacation to step off of the green and into the kitchen to help fight local hunger.

Over the winter season, the team donated its time to two hunger relief programs based in the DeKalb County area. The first, Meals on Wheels, is a non-profit organization aimed toward feeding the elderly. According to the Meals on Wheels website, there are approximately 6 million seniors who face the threat of hunger each year. The group would like to match that number and recruit 6 million volunteers to help eliminate senior hunger by 2020.

"We were contacted by the CHAMPS program at NIU and agreed to work with the Voluntary Action Center, a program that serves the DeKalb/Sycamore area," said NIU head men's golf coach Tom Porten. "We had a couple different things to choose from and I let the student-athletes decide, they picked Meals on Wheels."

Senior Matt Triplett (St. Charles, Ill./East) said the team chose Meals on Wheels because it was an option that let the team give back to their community.

"Huskie athletics is about more than just competing," Triplett said. "There's a lot that athletes can do to support the community. This community is one of our largest supporters so it's only fair for us to give something back."

For a little over two weeks, Triplett was joined by fellow teammates senior Jeff Dick (Sherman, Texas/Sherman) and freshman Griffin Bauman (Crystal Lake, Ill./Central). Along with Porten, the group would pick up bags of meals, hot and cold, and deliver them to the DeKalb High Rise senior center.

The volunteer work was so rewarding that the team decided to expand their efforts beyond senior citizens. The team quickly started to work for Feed the Hungry, a stimulus program that helped feed those in need, no matter what their age or ability.

The rest of the team now joined the trio, allowing the Huskies to split up into groups of five to seven to serve food on different days. The athletes would show up at 4:30 p.m. to help prepare for a dinner that would feed anywhere from 60-80 people. Usually, the team helped out by cutting up vegetables, or filling containers with dressings and other condiments. They tended to stay away from the main courses.

"The stereotypes are perfectly accurate," joked Porten about his team's kitchen skills. "Guys don't know how to prepare food. But I think they had fun and really learned a lot about each other."

After the Huskies helped prepare dinner, they would sit down with the diners and chat. After everyone was done, the team would help clean up the eating area, throw away any garbage and wash dishes.

"It was a good experience and was really rewarding," Triplett said. "Most of us on the team have had everything handed to us up until this point. It's a good experience to help those who are less fortunate than you."

Unfortunately, Feed the Hungry was a stimulus program and after awhile the funding ran out. But that did not stop the team from volunteering their time elsewhere. In late February, the team participated in Jefferson Elementary School's Hook A Kid On Golf program.

Porten would also like the team to volunteer at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in the near future, by visiting patients and providing company for those who would like it. Since NIU student-athletes have the benefit of great healthcare, Porten would really like to give back the hospitals and health organizations that support his team.

"It's all about giving," Porten said. "Service to humanity is the best work in life."

The NIU men's golf team will open the spring portion of its 2009-10 season on March 12-14 at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate in Pinehurst, N.C.

-NIU-