NCAA athletes lend hand at Candler Park school

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A swimmer from Northeastern and an injured Georgia Tech football player were among the more than 200 volunteers helping to turn a vision into a garden at an Atlanta elementary school.

Mary Lin Elementary School in Candler Park was the beneficiary Saturday of the service-project component of an NCAA leadership conference that brought about 200 student-athletes to Atlanta this weekend.

"They were out there getting it done today," said Elliott Jones, a parent of two Mary Lin students.

For about the past six years, the NCAA has been holding weekend seminars for its athletes to develop leadership skills. Schools in the ACC, Atlantic 10, Colonial Athletic Association, Big South and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference sent athletes to the regional conference. This is the second time that such an event has been held in Atlanta.

The project at Mary Lin to build garden beds, enhance an outdoor classroom and plant a hedge, among other things, was part of the program.

"I have goose bumps," said Lindsay Wyczalkowski, a third-grade teacher who led the school's effort to obtain the NCAA's help. "It's amazing. You have an idea and you hope other people out there think it's a good idea, too."

As part of their curriculum, the Mary Lin students will grow cauliflower, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and other vegetables, a portion of which will go to a local shelter.

Basketball players, swimmers, pole vaulters and tennis players, most dressed in their team's T-shirts and jackets, helped dozens of parents, students and teachers rake, push wheelbarrows, shovel dirt, plant bushes, assemble garden boxes, paint garden signs and trim kudzu. Dressed in a shirt and tie, Congressman John Lewis turned over some mulch in a playground before speaking to the group in the gym. A smaller contingent volunteered at Burgess-Elementary Academy in East Atlanta.

"There's people who are your rivals and now you're painting signs [with them], it's twilight zone," said Erica Smotrycz, a swimmer from Northeastern. "It's cool because you're competitive in one area and together in another."

Tech linebacker Kyle Jackson, who is out for the season with a foot injury, helped third-grader Luc Sabatier paint a blue-and-green garden sign while getting a steady diet of text messages updating him on the Tech-Virginia game in Charlottesville.

"It's just something where I feel like I'm a leader," said Jackson of his interest in attending the conference. "I want to learn more about how to be a better leader, or at least learn some skills to take back to the guys at school."