UF athletes will give Gainesville more than wins this holiday season.
The University Athletic Association is collecting shoes and monetary donations from Gators sports teams to give to Alachua County elementary school students.
The drive, called Gator Tracks, is in its 12th year, said Levi Leigh, UAA student athlete development coordinator.
The UAA partnered with the Alachua County School Board to determine the schools most in-need and get the sizes of students, he said.
Athletes donate, wrap and deliver the gifts to the children, he said. They wrapped the presents Monday and will deliver them to schools Thursday, Friday and next week.
“We really enjoy doing the drive, and our student athletes really walk away with something too,” Leigh said.
The kids get excited, said Kelley Kostamo, Alachua County Public Schools partnership specialist.
“It crosses something off their list of things that they might be worried about,” she said, adding that eliminating that source of stress may translate to better performance in the classroom.
Kostamo once measured the shoe size of a student who was wearing house slippers as shoes. Not every student is like that, she said, but the schools try to choose students who are especially in need.
Summer Stephens, a 19-year-old biology sophomore and member of the women’s swim team, witnessed the impact of Gator Tracks when she delivered shoes last year. A few boys who received Nike Jordan basketball shoes were especially enthusiastic.
“It was something that really touched me,” she said.
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
