LSM Society spearheads two events to raise $10,000

Students managed volunteer concessions staffing in September at the SAS Champions Tour PGA Event at Prestonwood Country Club. It was the fourth year the LSM Society has participated in the event, which offers students the opportunity to gain experience at a PGA Tour event. 

Students also work in corporate and hospitality capacities, providing a glimpse of professional opportunities, along with the ability to network with various professionals that manage and operate the tournament. 
 
The LSM Society also hosted on Nov. 21 the 3rd annual Skillz On Wheelz – “wheelin’ to make a difference” – 3-on-3 wheelchair basketball tournament.  Twenty-one teams participated in a double elimination tournament where able-bodied participants experienced what it is like to sit in a wheelchair while playing two 5-minute halves of basketball. 

Corporate teams from Glen Raven Mills (primary event sponsor), Sunland Fire Protection Inc. (corporate sponsor), the Greensboro Cerebral Palsy Association (corporate sponsor), and Alamance Regional Medical Center, competed with various Elon teams comprised of student, faculty, staff and Greek participants. 

This event was initially conceived in an LSM 227 class in the Fall of 2006 and repeated in the fall 2007 as a class project in an LSM-Senior Seminar class. The event this year was taken on by an LSM Society committee led by faculty members Tony Weaver and Hal Walker, as well as Josh Cranfill, a 2007 graduate of the LSM program and current Vice President of the North Carolina Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association (NCEWHA). 

An LSM committee of 14 student majors and minors contributed to the planning and organization of this year’s event. An Elon University-sponsored Community Partnership Initiative grant was also obtained to support efforts to raise approximately $8,000 at this year’s event and more than $22,000 over the past three years. 

Proceeds were extended to NCEWHA, the Greensboro Cerebral Palsy Association, and the LSM Department’s endowed scholarship fund.  Chan Chandler of Glen Raven Mills has pledged to continue supporting this as an annual event.

John G. Currin, president of ARMC, supplied wheelchairs for promotional activities leading up to the event and during a halftime contest during a men’s basketball game. Williams Medical Equipment provided wheelchairs for the Skillz On Wheelz tournament, the third year the company has done so. Elon’s Athletic department also supported the event.