FSCC baseball team completes '09 community service projects

The Fort Scott Community College Baseball team took a break from preparing for their finals with their last community service project of the 2009 fall. They once again placed luminaries at the local Gunn Park on Saturday December 5th.

Afterwards, they went shopping for the kids they adopted through the FSCC Adopt-a-Kid program and bought them clothes, diapers, and toys.

"It was a lot of fun shopping for the kids again this year. I got to feel like I was a kid again, especially when I went looking for toys to buy. The team really hopes that we were able to makes some kids' Christmas a lot better," said sophomore Brandon Davis.

This year's Gunn Park luminary lighting experience was much more low key when compared to last year's event where a couple of the luminaries blew over and caught on fire. This fire began to spread through the dead grass and leaves to a couple of trees before the baseball team was able to stomp it out and get it under control. The fire department came to finish off the fire.

On the luminary experience, sophomore Kian Jost said, "When compared to last year, the luminary lighting went a lot smoother. It was nice to drive through the park and view the luminaries that we laid. I hope the community enjoyed it too."

Freshman, EJ Swanson said, "It was fun walking through the park and laying the luminaries. I had no idea that Gunn Park is the biggest city park in Kansas. When John Leek told me that I was surprised."

The Greyhound Baseball team also participated in numerous other community service projects this fall which included: participating in city and campus clean ups, Community Christian Church's Trunk r' Treat, helping set up and work parking for the Jason Aldean charity concert, placing and picking up luminaries for Christmas in Gunn Park, and participating in FSCC's Adopt-a-Kid program.

"Community Service is a staple of our program. We consistently stress to our students that giving back to the community where you live is essential. They are learning that support is a two way street and they are driving on one side of the road - not sitting still with the car in park. The community of Fort Scott has been great in its support of our program and we are doing our best to support the community," said Head Coach John Hill III.

The baseball players report back to campus on Sunday, Jan. 10 and have their season opener on Feb. 13 versus Jefferson College in Arkansas City, KS. Their home opener is Thursday, Feb. 18 versus Butler County Community College.