By: Drew Wilson/Director of Athletics Communications

DANVILLE, Va. — Averett University’s student-athletes are working together to maybe help save lives through multiple initiatives this fall.

Averett’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has created a pinwheel display outside of the Grant Center on North Campus to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention Month. Each pinwheel represents 10 student-athletes who lost their lives to suicide.

“SAAC decided this year that we wanted to do something for suicide prevention month,” said Averett SAAC co-president Olivia Garner, a senior on the women’s basketball and track and field programs. “There was a study conducted recently that found that over the past 20 years, we’ve lost over 1,000 student-athletes to suicide unfortunately. That’s obviously a tremendous number, so we wanted to do something that would display that and bring awareness to that. That’s the purpose behind the pinwheels. … We think it is important that student-athletes know that they are not alone. Other people have experienced the same issues.”

SAAC’s pinwheel display will run through the end of September and into October.

Averett’s football program also got involved to possibly help save lives. It paired up with the National Marrow Donor Program — formerly known as “Be the Match” — to host an on-campus registration to be a potential blood stem cell donor. Members of the football team promoted and encouraged more than 50 people to register during an event at the MPR on Sept. 26.

“With the simple swab of your cheeks, you can get entered into a registry where you can match,” Averett football head coach Patrick Henry said. “If you match with somebody, you can donate your bone marrow or plasma, and that can save somebody’s life. I felt it was important to give back because there are so many people who have lost of loved one to bone marrow diseases, blood diseases and cancer. This is an easy way with the swab of your cheek and a few hours of your time to help save somebody’s life.”

Other Averett athletics programs also have benefit games or events lined up later this year, including cancer awareness games like the lacrosse programs’ Team Molly Game in the spring. Averett men’s lacrosse is also raising awareness and money for pediatric cancer research through a “LaCROSSe Out Cancer Challenge.” Averett’s SAAC will also be collecting canned items for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s annual Canned Food Competition in the coming months.

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