Southwest DeKalb hits a winner off the court by serving up community service as 18 team members recently trekked to the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s primary warehouse facility to help get food out to those in need across the Atlanta Metro area.
Coaches Daelyn Turner and Lance Davenport joined in as the team members started by sorting and packing donated food items in the facility near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The group also packed food into care boxes that were readied for delivery to supplemental food pantries, mobile markets and those metro-area families and residents in-need.
The ACFB works with nearly 700 community-based non-profits in its mission to fight hunger by engaging, educating and empowering the community. It is also a member of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger relief charity, which itself is made up of more than 200 food banks around the United States.
The team’s involvement in this and other worthy community service efforts is part of its Coach-mandated Annual Day(s) of Service and Volunteerism started by Davenport during the 2009-10 school year. Under the initiative team members are required to actively engage in such endeavors which connect them to and place them in service of their greater community.
These acts of service strengthen society as a whole and influence’s student athletes in the direction of continuing service work beyond high school into their adult lives. This tradition is being continued by Coach Taylor as she takes the reigns as the head coach of the Southwest DeKalb tennis program.
The teams entered the season having graduated 18 players over the past two years and the roster is dominated by underclassmen as they vie to be one of the Region 6-4A teams to earn a state tournament berth. This youth movement has the Panthers situated to compete at a high level for the next several years.
Credit: Mark Brock
Credit: Mark Brock
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