Demorest, GA – Earlier Friday morning, the Johnny Mize Athletic Center played host to competition again. This time though, the Lions and Lady Lions were not the focus.
For the second straight year, Piedmont College sponsored the PAL Games or Piedmont Athletic Lions Games, a special day of competition and camaraderie for students at the Demorest college and local elementary students with special needs.
The PAL Games is a group project originally created by Piedmont students themselves in 2015 and is designed to put on events and activities for special needs students from local elementary schools. The project saw involvement from close to 50 Piedmont student-athletes all gathering together to “pal” with with a special needs student for a day of fun and competition.
Activities at this year’s event including the Cave Maze Obstacle Course and Leo’s Long Jump competition as well as the Paw Toss. Also making a repeat appearance to the excitement of both the elementary students as well as the Piedmont students young at heart was the Minion Bowling event inspired by the popular children’s movie, Despicable Me.
The students who visited Cave Arena also taught Piedmont students a thing or two leading the Green and Gold in a few dances normally done in their respective classrooms. Even Leo the Lion was on hand, Piedmont’s school mascot, for pictures with the students visiting campus as well.
The event took on greater importance than any final score in Cave Arena this season with several of the Piedmont students taking some special memories away from the event including Alora McCoy, a freshman from Florida who volunteered to help with the event.
“I’ve never volunteered for an event quite like the Pal Games and it was eye-opening,” said McCoy who was one of the final students to sign up. “To see those children SO happy and enthusiastic really made me feel good and I know they were having a blast too. It was just a great experience and I can’t wait to volunteer for it again next year!”
Though student-led, it was through the work of Ann Sutton, Assistant to the EVP, that the event was able to take shape as Sutton began planning with the students weeks in advance of the special day.
“Once again, this year, we had some pretty amazing students helping make the day shine,” said Sutton of the day’s events. “The lives of our visiting students have to be changed just a little bit by receiving such devoted attention from our Piedmont athletes during the PAL Games.”
Dr. John Misner, the EVP for the college and Dean of the Walker School of Business, was heavily involved in the games this year as well helping to organize one of the activities. Most who know Dr. Misner find no surprise that he enjoyed working with both sets of students on the Friday morning with Misner saying: “What a wonderful day and event! I am so grateful that so many of our students and staff participated, not only in the day, but with so much of the planning that was needed to make the day such a success.
“We are all so thankful to have had the opportunity to be involved with our very special guests from the schools Fairview and Cornelia Elementary. I trust that our friends enjoyed the day as much as we did.”
Support came from across the Piedmont College community for the event with financial donations from the faculty and staff making the PAL Games possible for a second straight year.
The original genesis of the project came from Piedmont’s new Compass Program which is an experiential learning program that is a graduation requirement beginning with freshmen who entered in Fall 2013.
“The PAL games, once again, embodied the vision of the Compass Program by drawing on the talent of Piedmont students while exposing them to new contexts and challenges,” said Dr. Ashley Cleere, the college’s Chaplain and Director of the Compass Program. “It is always energizing to see student-athletes thinking on their feet and making a difference in the community.”
According to the Piedmont Compass Program official website, the experiences students receive from projects similar to the PAL Games enable students to engage with peers, as well as faculty, staff, and people in the wider community.
The general public as well as faculty and staff on campus were invited to the opportunity to be a “PAL” and sponsor one of the children involved in the games as well to raise funds for the cause.
The project continues a growing commitment from Piedmont student-athletes to both become and stay involved with the local community making a difference in the lives of those around them.
Article by Piedmont College Sports Information (www.piedmontlions.com)
