The Colby-Sawyer Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has asked all Colby-Sawyer students, faculty, staff and Hogan members to participate in the Yards for Yeardley Gym Takeover.

Starting Feb. 8, participants recorded their workout distances each day, which contributed to the cause of Yards for Yeardley. Colby-Sawyer's personal goal was to have our community record one million yards over the course of one week.

"I kept an excel spreadsheet with the day to day progress. It was great to see so many people contributing to a cause. The event was conducted by having sheets set up in Hogan where participants could fill out the mileage from the bike, track or anything that tracks mileage, and then write it down. We kept track of every 200,000 yards on the board in Hogan," said SAAC Representative Matt Maynard.
This event supports the One Love Foundation, which was founded in 2010 to raise awareness about relationship violence. The foundation was started after Yeardley Love, a student at the University of Virginia, was killed by her ex-boyfriend just three weeks before her graduation date.

"SAAC has sponsored the One Love Foundation in the past, but we wanted to recognize and sponsor it again this year to bring continued awareness to relationship violence. Many may not realize how common this issue is in our society. Bringing awareness and teaching people what love really is will hopefully help people who find themselves or loved ones in a abusive relationship." said SAAC President Emma Schick.

On Feb. 15, SAAC marked the final progress of the event. As a school, the participants completed 2,051,617 yards to raise awareness on relationship violence. This more than doubled the original goal, resulting in a very successful week participating in Yards for Yeardley.

The school celebrated its successful participation in Yards for Yeardley at the One Love basketball games on Feb. 15 which were sponsored by SAAC and the Student Government Association (SGA).

"I could not have been more proud of the outcome of our event. We brought further recognition to the One Love Foundation when we sponsored the Colby-Sawyer basketball games with help from the SGA and The Stable. Various SAAC members volunteered to pass out t-shirts that read, "#TeamOneLove,". We also had students sign our banner and state what they consider love and what they do not," said Schick. "As exciting as it was to bring the entire Colby-Sawyer community together, the most satisfying part of this whole event for me personally was reaching so many people and teaching them about relationship violence and the astonishing statistics that go along with it."

--Written by Joey Fenuccio (Colby-Sawyer Courier)