STAFF REPORTS
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BUFFALO — The Buffalo State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) in conjunction with the One Love Foundation hosted “Years for Yeardley” this Sunday in the Sports Arena as part of the SUNYAC-wide event “10 Million Yards for Yeardley”.
Student-athletes and athletic department staff on each SUNYAC campus were asked to run, walk, skip, or swim in an effort to accumulate at least 1 million yards each to promote awareness of relationship and domestic violence.
Buffalo State finished with 2,035,345 yards on the day, the fifth-highest total in the conference.
The goal of the SUNYAC SAAC was to reach 10 million yards across the 10 conference member institutions between April 20-30. That number was quickly changed to 20 million as the conference was just below the nine million mile mark through the first five schools to hold the event.
With the help of every school in the conference, the SUNYAC reached a grand total of 25,866,342 yards as a whole.
Oswego led the event with 5,822,241 yards with Cortland, Brockport, Oneonta and Buffalo State rounding out the top five.
Early morning rain couldn’t stop the fun had at Buffalo State, as a move inside to the Sports Arena allowed for student-athletes, staff and their families to not only walk/run, but to partake in basketball and football games, can jam, and other various events throughout the morning and early afternoon.
Yards for Yeardley was organized in remembrance of former University of Virginia women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love. On May 3rd, 2010, Love was brutally beaten to death by her deranged former boyfriend and member of the men’s lacrosse team. Since that fatal day, Yeardley’s mother, Sharon Love developed the One Love Foundation in response to her tragic loss to raise awareness about the consequences of relationship violence.
The SUNYAC SAAC Million Yards for Yeardley event was the first-ever Yards for Yeardley endeavor taken on by an entire conference. It was also the first SAAC community service event where all 10 institutions worked together to raise awareness and give back to the entire New York Community.
For more information on the “Yards for Yeardley” event and the One Love Foundation, visit www.JoinOneLove.org.
