November 23, 2004. - The holidays are a time to give thanks and appreciate the blessings in one's life.  The members of the USA South Athletic Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) realize that not everyone is as fortunate as they are and wanted to do something to help make it a happier holiday in their communities.  And so Cans Across the Conference began. 

SAAC organized the canned food drive as a community service competition amongst the eight schools in the USA South.  Each campus SAAC collected cans and other non-perishable items at their school from September 30 through November 13 to benefit a local charity.  It was up to each school to decide how they wanted to collect and who they would donate to.  The school with the most items collected would be crowned the Cans Across the Conference champion.  Overall, the USA South schools collected more than 9,000 items! With a whopping 2,325 total, Methodist College is the inaugural Cans Across the Conference champion.  Ferrum College came in a close second with 2,270 items.  The Monarchs will be presented with their trophy at a later date.  The USA South will make this an annual event. 

The schools got creative when finding ways to collect cans.  Methodist, for example, made it an intra-collegiate affair.  They set up a competition amongst all the teams in the athletic department to see who could collect the most cans.  The winning team would then receive a pizza party, courtesy of the Monarch SAAC.  The Ferrum group tied their drive in with Halloween and trick-or-treated in the community for cans.  N.C. Wesleyan used a few different methods, including offering discount admission at football games for cans, had players bring them in and placed boxes around for student, faculty and staff donation. 

As wide a variety of ways of collecting is the organizations the schools chose to donate to.  Averett split up their 1,210 cans to help two local groups: Doves' Inc., a shelter for battered women, and God's Storehouse, a storage place for the less fortunate.  Christopher Newport also split up their 1,380 items in order to help more people.  The Captains donated their items to the Peninsula Food Bank and several individual needy families in the Newport News, VA area.  Ferrum made their large donation to St. James Community Center, which offers members of the Franklin County community clothes and food.  Greensboro gave their 605 items to Greensboro Urban Ministry.  The group provides crisis intervention and emergency services to those in need.  Methodist donated their cans and non-perishable items to their local Salvation Army. N.C. Wesleyan gave their 805 items to the Rocky Mount United Way.  Peace donated their 326 cans to Urban Ministries of Wake County, which services more than 13,000 families and individuals in the County every year.  Shenandoah gave their 121 cans to The Shelter for Abused Women in Winchester, VA. 

The members of the USA South Student-Athlete Advisory Committee hope to do their part to help those less fortunate in their eight communities.  As Dr. Loretta Scott said, "We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."