Flames Serving Lynchburg
The Liberty University Department of Athletics is committed to raising up talented, well-rounded athletes who serve Christ in all areas of life. The Athletics Department’s community service initiative is one example of this commitment.
Within the past few years, the Athletics Department made a concerted effort to establish and build upon relationships between Liberty and organizations and schools in the Lynchburg community. Kristie Beitz, senior associate athletics director for academic affairs, remembers the department’s motive to improve relationships in the area.
“It all began with us wanting to pay it forward,” Beitz said. “With the platform that our student-athletes have, (we asked ourselves) ‘How could they get out in the community and how could they make a difference in people’s lives’ … We wanted to have our student-athletes out there and engaging with the community.”
Whether it be volunteering at the Daily Bread to serve the homeless or taking extra toiletries collected while out on the road for Blessing Bags, student-athletes are investing and serving Lynchburg in many different ways.
The Big South Conference has partnered with Project Life, a national movement to increase the pool of bone marrow and tissue donors, encouraging each school to recruit participants to sign up for the registry. Liberty will be promoting the movement March 23-27 during Flames For Life Week, which is designed to promote awareness and educate people about the need for bone marrow.
Liberty Flames are a part of annual charitable events such as the Volleyball-a-thon, a Dollar Makes a Difference, Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat, the Spooktacular and many others. Student-athletes are encouraged to contribute to service ideas of their own as well.
Every year, student-athletes from every team are given multiple opportunities to go out into the Lynchburg community and offer up their service. Junior running back D.J. Abnar looked back on one of his favorite outreach experiences.
“A day that we went to Leesville Elementary School, we got to help special needs kids, and we were basically just there to interact with them,” Abnar said. … “We were kind of able to be like a celebrity for a day to them, kind of (bringing) happiness to them.”
Charitable outreaches are not just a push on behalf of the university. Student-athletes in every arena love being a part of the action. Redshirt senior Jasmine Gardner expressed how special it is to be a student-athlete.
“It is a privilege to be a student-athlete, just seeing little kids and thinking about when you were a child and how hard you worked to get here is one of the best feelings,” Gardner said.
A favorite event of the student-athletes is Keep it Moving With Character, a partnership with track and field coach Pete McFadden, the CEO of the organization Dream Again Life. Each year, around 50 elementary school kids are provided with a free camp experience in which sports are used as a means of encouragement, teaching character and the value of dreaming beyond their circumstances.
“For a lot of kids from the local area who come here to our university who do not have any type of guidance to show them there’s a different way outside of just being a professional athlete, … there’s other opportunities out there in the world to fulfill, … (we can) kind of create a new future for them to see and expand their mind to a new world,” Abnar said.
“I just like to be able to see smiles on people’s faces around here,” Abnar said. “It’s fulfilling because back home I was involved in a lot of community things even before I even got to college, and being able to have the opportunity to continue to do it … is kind of a blessing, and I thank God for it. Honestly.”
“It’s really exciting to see the joy that our student-athletes have, the interaction that they have with the kids as well as the adults that they work with,” Beitz said. “Some of it is that our athletes see themselves in a child that they’re working with. ‘That was me, and I want to make a difference in that person’s life.’”