BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Moravian College is joining with schools across the country in celebration of NCAA Division III Week, which officially began on Monday and runs through Saturday, April 15th. This year's inaugural event will celebrate student-athletes' academic achievements and athletic accomplishments, in addition to their campus leadership and their involvement in community service.
The Greyhounds will be hosting its annual National Student-Athlete Day get together Wednesday evening in Johnston Hall when all of Moravian's student-athletes will gather for Polish water ice and raffles. Moravian also has seven digital signs throughout campus that will be running individual slides on the 70 Greyhound student-athletes that have earned All-Conference, All-Region, All-America and conference academic awards or won individual conference championships so far in 2011-12.
"I am very proud of our student-athletes and of our athletic programs!" stated Moravian College President Christopher M. Thomforde, a member of the NCAA Division III Management Council, one of two presidents on the council. "Students who know how to compete in the classroom and on the playing fields with passion, coaches who are educators, training young men and women to be players, teammates, and responsible adults."
Moravian has been involved with the community service aspect of Division III Week for the entire academic year. The men's and women's basketball teams have participated in several Cops 'N Kids reading sessions at local elementary schools while the football and women's basketball teams were part of Read Across America on March 2 at two Bethlehem Area elementary schools. During the month of April, five athletic teams – football, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's volleyball and field hockey, are participating in a four-week "Project Dreamseeds" with the Bethlehem Area School District to mentor 4th and 5th grade students in the local elementary schools.
"Moravian College can be proud of the performance of our student-athletes; not just on the fields or on the courts, but also in the classroom and in the community," Moravian Director of Athletics Scot Dapp said. "The NCAA has designated this week as a celebration of the Division III Student-Athletes and the Greyhounds are happy to be part of that celebration."
The Greyhounds have also been active in raising money and awareness for cancer research this year. The women's basketball squad finished first for the third straight year in the Kay Yow Cancer Fund Play 4Kay initiative with a total of $12,025 raised in 2012. The program has raised a total of $29,150 over the last four years. The women's volleyball program $740 for the Lehigh Valley Women's Cancer Center last fall in memory of Ginnie Rohn, a 1993 Moravian graduate who passed away last September. The field hockey, football and the men's & women's soccer teams hosted a Cancer Awareness games last October, and the men's basketball program had a Coaches Versus Cancer game this past February.
The football team will be hosting its third annual Be The Match – Bone Marrow Donor Registration Drive on Wednesday, April 18 in Johnston Hall from 4 to 7 p.m. The Greyhounds have had 664 people register over the last two years including junior field hockey player Stephanie Pezzello, who was determined to be an exact match for a young leukemia patient last June and donated bone marrow over the summer.
For more information on the celebration of NCAA Division III Week, please visit http://www.ncaa.org/divisioniii.
