Marquette men’s lacrosse kicked off its year by giving back to the community with its first fundraiser of 2019-’20.
At this year’s welcome-back barbecue over Family Weekend, they chose to do more than just come together and eat.
“Because there were so many individuals coming — over 140 of us here — we decided to reach out to a local community homeless shelter, the Milwaukee (Rescue) Mission,” men’s lacrosse booster club co-chair Amanda Thomson said. “We asked them if they needed anything.”
The answer was a strange request: underwear. But regardless, Thomson, the mother of junior midfielder Keaton Thomson and recent MU graduate Tanner Thomson, obliged.
“We decided to call our efforts Just One. Just one pair of underwear, such a simple thing,” Thomson said. “It’s not going to benefit us, except for the fact that all of the kids are always going to be giving back.”
Building off the results of this event, the program’s objective for the year will be Just One.
Throughout the year, the team will expand on the Just One event and host Just One Coat and Just One Driveway to help Milwaukee residents in need of help during the colder months.
“We have (an event) coming up in November, and we’re going to donate Just One Coat to (the homeless),” Thomson said. “We have other little ones that we are looking at, like Just One Driveway. Just shovel one driveway, do one lawn, do someone’s garbage, just one thing.”
Thomson has high hopes for the Just One initiative.
“The Just One program will help so many little places in Milwaukee that need it that we don’t know about,” Thomson said. “So many hands can do such an amazing thing. Most of our team is from all over North America, so asking them to do just one little thing is appropriate.”
Members of the team said the new initiative demonstrates the team’s culture.
“A big motto for us is being a part of something greater than yourself,” redshirt sophomore Jordan Schmid said. “All of us fight for each other on the field and in the weight room and classroom, but then being able to reach out to the Milwaukee community and make a difference is huge for our team and what we believe in.”
“Our culture is based on ‘lead’: being leaders in the community, classroom, on campus,” senior Connor McClelland said. “This is one step in becoming a leader in the future for a lot of the younger guys and older guys going into the workplace.”
