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WINONA, Minn. — The intention was for Sunday, Sept. 9, to become an annual ritual — an opportunity for all Saint Mary's University's intercollegiate athletes to come together in an informal setting to enhance camaraderie between all teams.
Then the rains came.
And the floods followed.
Between Aug. 17 and Aug. 18, rivers swollen by as much as a foot of rain lifted houses off their foundations and washed away roads, killing at least 22 people in a three-state region. Hundreds of people in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin were evacuated, some by boat off of rooftops. Thousands lost their homes.
Suddenly, that need for athletic camaraderie didn't seem quite so important.
The Cardinal Athletic Council and the Cardinal student-athletes did have their get-together Sunday afternoon. Nearly 200 student-athletes, along with 112 other SMU students, all got together and spent the afternoon in the southeastern Minnesota towns of Rushford, Stockton and Minnesota City, helping with clean-up efforts.
“We had originally planned on holding a picnic for all of the athletes at the beginning of the year. The intent was to welcome all of the athletes back to school and increase support among the athletic teams,” explained CAC president Kasey Schultz, a senior on the SMU women's swimming and diving team. “With the recent flooding in the area, we decided it was a great opportunity to turn the gathering into a chance to help our community.”
Saint Mary's student-athletes traded in their sneakers, skates, sticks, balls and bats for masks, gloves and boots and spent the afternoon lending a helping hand wherever it was needed.
Which was just about everywhere.
“I was shocked at all the damage. I had seen pictures over the last few weeks, but seeing the devastation first-hand was incredible,” said Adam Gill of the men's hockey team, who worked with a group of athletes cutting down trees and stacking wood for a family in Stockton. “I thought this was a great idea, and it was great to see so many of our student-athletes there with one purpose in mind — to help a community in need.”
While Gill and his group were busy with clean-up efforts in Stockton, others spent the afternoon helping with the recovery efforts at Whitewater State Park, while several other groups — including Schultz and junior volleyball player Theresa Perrini — spent most of the afternoon in flood-ravaged Rushford, shoveling mud out of basements.
“All of the groups that went out did different work — some helped clean up a state or neighborhood park, while others worked in homes tearing down walls or shoveling mud out of basements,” said Schultz. “The group I was with shoveled about a foot of mud out of a basement. I can't describe to you what it is like to see an entire basement covered in mud.
“I was amazed at how much damage there was,” Schultz added. “When someone tells you they had 3 feet of water in the main floor of their house, it doesn't sound that bad. But you don't realize what that means until you see it. You don't realize that they lost everything they owned, except whatever they kept on the second floor — if they were lucky to have one.
"Seeing the damage hit me pretty hard, but helping to clean it up hit me even harder,” Schultz continued. “It's one thing to shovel mud out of a basement, but when you find the family's possessions in that mud … the radios, golf clubs and TVs — it makes you wonder what it would be like if something like this happened to your house.”
Perrini and her group of nearly 40 athletes spent the afternoon at a Rushford home. Half the group worked in ankle-deep “muck” in the basement, while the other half tore the plaster off water-soaked walls on the first floor.
“Initially, driving to Rushford, I thought we might still see some high water, but it wasn't until we reached the house and started tearing the plaster off the walls that I realized how much of an impact the flood had left,” explained Perrini. “The house that I worked on was a large house. We had about 40 volunteers in our group and there wasn't a time when somebody wasn't doing something — and that was just one home.”
“The unity that our students showed while in the field not only brought them together as a team but connected them to the community,” Katie LaPlant, director of Student Activities and Volunteer Services, said.
“The LaSallian spirit was shown in the work that they did, and it really energized the people they were helping. Students learned that service work is not only hard, physical labor; it also means listening and participating in an effort to revive the spirits of the flood victims. People think that if you're volunteering, you have a compassionate heart, and chances are that you probably do.”
After an afternoon of back-wrenching work, the CAC contingent — caked in mud and soaked in sweat — reloaded their buses and headed for home.
But not without the gratitude of a community — and a newfound respect for human life.
“This was an awesome experience,” said Perrini. “I think it made us all appreciate what we have, and made us realize that in an instant, your entire life can be turned upside-down. The amount of gratitude we received made us all feel so good — because in just this one afternoon, we were able to help someone begin to rebuild their lives.”
