Stanford Athlete Love

For me, this week has been all about Stanford Athlete love. Every year the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for the Stanford Athletic Department called Cardinal Council organizes and puts on a fundraiser for the non-profit organization called Camp Kesem. Our very own Kim Hall is the Secretary for Cardinal Council and she was very integral in making sure our team was as involved as it could be in this year’s fundraiser. Camp Kesem is a community of college campuses, on which student leaders develop and operate free one weeklong summer camps for children in families coping with cancer. Camp Kesem was first founded in 2001 on Stanford Campus and has since spread to 22 college campuses across the nation.

Because Stanford is the birthplace of Camp Kesem the fundraiser held every year is extremely popular and student-athletes, alumni, professors and students fill the auditorium. The fundraiser that Cardinal Council puts on is called Athlete Date Auction. This fundraiser is an auction of athlete teams to the highest bidder, promising everything from field passes to Big Game to an inner tube water polo game and pool party with the Women’s Water Polo Team. How it works is that representatives from each team (usually freshmen) put together a routine/dance that they perform at the auction and then after the performance people in the audience can bid on them. All of the money earned from the fundraiser goes directly to Camp Kesem and the teams provide the “dates” for free.

This year our freshmen performed an awesome routine with three fellow synchronized swimming freshmen (Leigh Haldeman, Liane Lovitt and Danielle Rossoni) to an incredible mash up of songs, including “All of the Lights” by Kanye West, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha and “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus. Our team was bought by the Women’s Field Hockey Team for $150. Other than our own team being bought, our team was exceptionally giving that night. We also bought Men’s Gymnastics (with a promise of pizza and a day in the gymnastic’s gym with the team) and Men’s Volleyball (with a date to the beach with the team). We will see if those “dates” actually end up happening, but the real exciting thing about Athlete Date Auction is being able to support your fellow Stanford Student-Athletes and raising money for an incredible organization like Camp Kesem. All in all it was a very successful fundraiser and Stanford Student-Athletes were able to raise $4290 for Camp Kesem.

However, the athlete love does not end there. Last night after a long practice Melissa, Monica and I were on our way home to Roth when we discovered that a wallet had been left in my car. It turns out it was Eric Mochalski’s wallet who is a very talented freshman on the Men’s Volleyball team. Unfortunately, Men’s Volleyball at that very moment were on a bus to the San Jose Airport to catch a flight to socal to play USC and Pepperdine. Now this is where teams find out how much love they have for each other and the lengths one team is willing to go for another team. Even though the three of us were starving and tired from a long practice we knew what we had to do. Sure enough we immediately hopped onto 101 South and made our way to the San Jose Airport to drop off the lost wallet and ensure that Eric was able to get on his 8pm flight. We were able to make it there on time and he was able to board his plane promptly with the team. Being able to help out another Stanford Athlete is not only rewarding but it really shows you how close athletes are at Stanford. So, from the entire water polo team we would like to wish Men’s Volleyball a big good luck on their road trip and we look forward to the “date” we bought the other night.