The Pal-Mac Way and Community Service

Posted

on May 20, 2015

Cindy Surline introduced our guest speaker today - Tom Schmandt from the Palmyra-Macedon School District. Mr. Schmandt has been with Pal-Mac for 20 years, the last 6 as Director of Athletics. In his time as director, he has worked to expand on the community service aspect of the athletics department.

He mentioned how his predecessor Fred Ciaburri started a program where student-athletes would do projects for senior citizens. Called “Rake for our Sake” the program would get maybe 100 athletes and coaches, who would volunteer their time raking lawns for senior citizens in the community. Mr. Schmandt wanted to build on that program and expand it to other programs so more student-athletes would be able to participate.

Since then, more programs have come into existence. One is the Spring Clean-Up which puts the students to work picking up and maintaining parks, sidewalks, and trails in Palmyra and Macedon. Another popular program is “Parents’ Night Out.” This program opens up the school’s athletic facilities to 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-graders for a night, which gives the parents a night off to spend however they wish without the added expense of a sitter. The cost of admission to this event is one non-perishable food item.

President Bob Yost poses with Tom Schmandt and Rotarian Cindy Surline.

In any given year, close to 600 students participate in these three events, which is a high participation rate. In fact, each of the last three years, Pal-Mac’s student-athletes have been recognized for their community service by Section V Athletics. When the Genesee Region Special Olympics was held at Pal-Mac in 2013, over 200 students showed up to volunteer. This was on a “Professional Development Day,” which meant the students had no school that day, but they came anyway to help out.

Those programs are primarily aimed at high school student-athletes, but the district also has programs which allow students from all grades to participate. The “Fill-a-Bus” project challenges students in each of the district’s four buildings to gather the most non-perishable items in an effort to literally fill a bus with food for the needy. Other popular events include the annual Powder Puff football game which benefits the Susan Komen Cancer Center. For the younger grades there is Jump Rope for Heart, which this year raised over $2,000 for the American Heart Association.

From Mr. Schmandt’s presentation today, it’s clear that our students are learning to be community-minded and that they have a sense of volunteerism. The programs he outlined today help to reinforce the idea that “The Pal-Mac Way is Every Day."