Dec. 1, 2006

Members of the Dayton Flyers women's track and field team helped spread holiday cheer as players and coaches gathered to pack shoe box gifts for Operation Christmas Child. This is the team's first time to pack gifts for the world's largest Christmas project.

The Flyers put together more than 11 shoeboxes, enclosed a personalized note and wrapped the gift in an effort to help underprivileged children around the world.

"We are trying to teach our student-athletes to not only be better athletically, but become better people," UD head coach Kandice Erwin said. "We try to get them out in the community as much as possible by doing several community service and volunteer projects throughout the year."

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse and aims to collect shoeboxes packed with toys and gifts for underprivileged children. Churches, organizations, and individuals alike take part each year in the project. Last week, was the project's national collection week.

The boxes contain toys, hygiene items such as soap and washcloths, school supplies and hard candy. From there, the outside of each box is labeled with "boy" or "girl" and an age category ranging from 2-14.

The children who receive the gifts often are refugees of war, survivors of natural disasters or living in extreme poverty.

Operation Christmas Child has been collecting shoe box gifts for children since 1993. Since the project began, more than 46 million gifts have been sent to children in more than 120 countries on six continents. This year, the project hopes to collect 8 million gifts.

"The kids really got involved in Operation Christmas Child," said Erwin. "They really came together, shopping and wrapping the presents before Christmas. I think it really got them in the Christmas Spirit. Knowing that we are doing something to brighten someone else's Christmas is very rewarding.

Originally proposed by UD's Athletes in Action, Operation Christmas Child is one of numerous community service projects the Flyers track and field team participates in. The Flyers have worked with local grade schools, children at the YMCA, and community blood drives.

Erwin hopes the team cohesiveness forged with the project helps the Flyers at the start of the 2006-07 season with the Oiler Opener from the University of Findlay on Saturday.

"I don't know who is more excited the team or the coaches," Erwin said. "This is my first recruiting class coming in so I'm excited to see how they are going to respond. They have really pushed our upperclassmen to work harder this year. We are excited to see what the fall training has done for us and see where we are at and what we need to work on for Christmas break."

The Flyers are coming off their highest-ever finish at the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championship, coming in fourth place in 2006. With an influx of 22 new freshmen, Erwin believes Dayton is a program on the rise.

"Our big thing with the team is to be cohesive as possible," Erwin said. ".We want them to get to know everybody on the team and to support each other which in turn will make us more successful."