TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona Athletics held its first ever Community Service Day this week as a department-wide initiative to give back to the Southern Arizona community through key partnerships with the United Way of Tucson and Opportunity Youth. Arizona coaches, student-athletes and staff volunteered at five different sites throughout Tucson and served over 1,000 local youth through a variety of projects.

• Hygiene Kit Drive to support Opportunity Youth at Lowell-Stevens Football Facility
• Field games for local students at Douglas Elementary School
• Field games for local students at Prince Elementary School
• Restored a storage facility at the De Colores Learning Center
• Participated in the United Way's "My Summer Library" program at Madonado Amelia Elementary School.

"We're grateful to Arizona Athletics for volunteering with us this week," said President and CEO of United Way of Tucson & Southern Arizona Tony Penn. "Their team brought dozens of volunteers to four different schools in support of literacy and physical education. This valuable gift of time impacted hundreds of students in our community.  It's this kind of service and commitment that makes our partnership with UArizona so special."
 

The athletics department had 104 total volunteers spending over 200 hours in one day. Each field games session hosted 400 local youth at both Douglas and Prince Elementary schools with another 200 students attending the "My Summer Reading" event. Department staff hosted games and physical activities in different stations at both schools throughout the day while spending half a day organizing books and reading to students with the United Way's program at Madonado Amelia Elementary School.

Arizona's day of volunteering came on the heels of its student-athletes breaking the department's record of 4,174 community service hours this year.

About Opportunity Youth
Opportunity Youth are young people who are between the ages of 16 to 24 years old and are disconnected from school and work. This developmental time period, also referred to as emerging adulthood,[1] has great potential for individual growth through exploring independence and life opportunities. It is a critical window of opportunity for youth and young adults to gain an education and/or training that would "…provide the foundation for their occupational trajectories during the rest of their adulthood."[2] This can include developing knowledge, skills, and character traits that are important for opportunity youth's career pathway development.

About the United Way of Tucson & Southern Arizona
United Way of Tucson responds to our community's needs, transforms lives and brings long-lasting systemic change to our community by focusing on the underlying issues. We fight for education, financial wellness, equality and healthy communities for every person in Tucson and Southern Arizona. Our role as community convener enables us to serve more than 420,000 people each year by forming strategic partnerships, mobilizing the best resources and being the catalyst for needed, positive change.