The Triangle

Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Dave Hernandez Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Tobey Oxholm and student athletes attempt to throw old sneakers into a basketball net at the quad on April 8.

The Students Athletic Advisory Committee and the Community Alumni Network of Drexel University organized a sneaker free-throw event in the Quad April 8.

Over 1,200 sneakers were donated and will be recycled into playground materials, according to CAN DU and SAAC.

"Throwing the sneakers is a lot different than basketball. It's pretty fun, and it gets people out here thinking about the environment," Jamie Harris, a freshman in sports management and member of the men's basketball team, said.

Rebecca Weidensaul, associate director of athletics and adjunct associate professor at the Goodwin College of Professional Studies, said, "The sneaker event was part of the Earth Day fair and it was orchestrated in a way that would sort of bring some life to the fair."

The collected sneakers will be sent to Rittenhouse Sports Specialties, which will then hand over the donations to Nike's "Reuse-A-Shoe" program, according to Mike Scarneo, a senior majoring in health sciences SAAC treasurer.

"We conducted a similar event early winter term and were able to donate around 200 pairs, so we decided to hold another one as a Green Week activity," Scarneo said.

The Nike program partners with businesses specializing in making playground surfaces such as basketball courts, artificial soccer turfs and running tracks. These playgrounds are then built in underprivileged and underserved areas to promote healthy sports activity and better the living quality of the area.

Although the Drexel associations do not have a direct say as to where the new playgrounds will be made, Scarneo said he believed one of the possible locations is New Orleans, La.

"I want to thank the many Drexel alumni who responded to the call, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society which delivered six bags of sneaks, and my good friends and colleagues in the Philadelphia Squash Racquets Association, especially Nick LePore of Schnader Harrison and Allan Grant of Pennoni Associates, for having collected 122 very well used, and rather ripe, sneakers," Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, executive vice president and chief of staff, said.

Continued...

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