With Halloween coming up, everyone starts to think about decorations, scary movies, haunted houses and, of course, children trick-or-treating for candy. The UWRF Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) members and all UWRF athletic team members also enjoy trick-or-treating, except they collect canned food items each year instead of candy.

The annual "SAAC Trick-or-Treat for Canned Goods" drive will be taking place next week. All of the student-athletes will go around door-to-door, collecting canned food items that will be donated to the River Falls Food Pantry. John Bullis, the president of SAAC, says, “When we collect canned goods and give them to the food pantry, people that are less fortunate are able to attain these goods. It helps the pantry stock up with a wide variety of foods.” Not only does this experience impact the community, but it also gives the Falcon student-athletes a chance to go out and meet the people who support UWRF.

This event has been going on for many years and it continuously gives directly back to the community. Last year, UWRF was ranked among the highest universities in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference when it came to how much food was collected. Last year, UWRF student-athletes collected nearly 3,000 pounds! Bullis also states, “We have high expectations on how many pounds of food we collect again this year!”

If you would like to support this drive, you can bring canned food items to the UWRF Athletic Office from Oct. 24-28 from 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. or to any UWRF home athletic events from Oct. 28-29. In addition, the student-athletes will be gathering door-to-door collections in the River Falls community on Oct. 30 from 3-5 p.m.