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University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Football in the Community
5/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
In conjunction with the St. Jude Medical Foundation, the University of Minnesota and it’s M.A.G.I.C (Maroon and Gold Impacting the Community) program, the two groups joined together and visited the Maplewood Middle School on Friday, April 30. St. Jude strives to make life better for future generations and the Gopher student-athletes were there to promote a healthy lifestyle and pursue an education, particularly in math and science, through their program, Exercise Your Heart and Mind.
In all, 16 Gopher student-athletes participated in the event as they helped two classes in Maplewood, Minn. Football was represented by Brandon Kirksey and Kyle Dykstra, who have each volunteered more than 25 hours to the M.A.G.I.C program.
Other student-athletes that attended was women’s swimming’s Molly Belk, Kaylee Jamison, Madeline Takaki and Alison Eggers, men’s hockey’s Nick Leddy and Patrick White, women’s track’s Meghan Mason and Julia Rozman, wrestling’s Cody Marcicki and Bart Reiter, women’s basketball’s Leah Cotton, soccer’s Katie Shelander, men’s gymnast Aaron Fortunato and softball’s Natalie Neal. The Gophers reported to the Bierman Field Athletic Building at 8 a.m. and participated in two classes at Maplewood. They returned to campus at 11:15 a.m.
Student-athletes were there to provide help with two science experiments. One was on reaction time and how it can be related to sports, while the second experiment was of chromatography. Meghan Mason, who is an epidemiology major, led the students in the experiments, explained each one and what everyone was doing for the duration of the hour. Following the completion of the experiments, the Gopher student-athletes answered questions from the class about various topics, including their daily schedules, classes, majors and other sports they like besides the one they compete at the U.
Click the video below to see more from the Gophers' interaction with the students at Maplewood Middle School.
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