ITHACA, N.Y. – Like any other Friday morning of the semester, Cornell student-athletes were on campus at Newfield Elementary School on March 13 as part of a weekly volunteer program through the Red Key Society. The nearby school is a primary focus of Red Key, which is an honor society for junior and senior student-athletes with an emphasis on service within the greater Ithaca community. Members serve as mentors and tutors to help increase academic, social and emotional success. Red Key also attends school-wide assemblies where they help encourage monthly themes of inclusion, kindness, and perseverance.
Members of Cornell's Red Key Society attend a school assembly at Newfield Elementary School in Newfield, N.Y.
One of the student-athletes volunteering at Newfield that day was junior men's swimmer, Jack McSorley, who has been a part of Red Key for the past year. March 13 was unlike previous Fridays, though, as tension and uncertainty across the country was quickly on the rise due to the rapid spread of COVID-19.
Jamie McCaffrey, a social worker and the volunteer coordinator at Newfield, began to worry that it wouldn't be much longer before the elementary school also closed its doors. Adding to the uncertainty, a closure of Newfield meant that its students living below the poverty line – which accounts for 60% of the student population – would no longer have access to two provided meals per day. Following its closure, Newfield immediately made breakfast and lunch available to all students age 1-18 in the district, but the worry of food insecurity for families outside of the two meals remained.
That's where Red Key stepped in.
With the support of his coaches, McSorley planned to use the swimming and diving offices as a collection point for donations, calling on his fellow student-athletes to bring in any unused non-perishable items before the move-out date. This would allow the Newfield Food Pantry to stock up before the school district closed.
However, in the dynamic landscape of COVID-19, things changed. During the afternoon of March 13, the university announced that classes would be canceled for the following two weeks, and students were urged to return home as quickly as they could to prepare for virtual instruction. With the prospect of an on-campus food drive no longer possible, women's rowing senior Alex Uzzo volunteered to collect donations, offering up her home as the designated drop-off point. Now on short notice, members of Red Key reached out to their teammates and encouraged them to donate.
"My coaches agreed to let us use the swimming and diving offices as a collection point for donations over the next two weeks, but the cancelation of classes derailed our original plans for the on-campus food drive," McSorley said. "We knew the kids still desperately needed donations though, so Alex Uzzo and Jamie McCaffrey stepped in to set up donation points. It feels really good knowing we were able to help prevent food insecurity for kids during such unprecedented times."
With little time to spare, word quickly spread throughout each of Cornell's varsity teams. While some cleaned out their pantries, others got creative, spending every remaining dollar of their Big Red Bucks on non-perishables at on-campus dining facilities. Before departing Ithaca, Big Red student-athletes donated approximately 350 pounds of non-perishable food items to the pantry.
Cornell's Red Key Society donates food to the Newfield Elementary School food pantry prior to campus closing on March 13, 2020 due to COVID-19
It's not the first time Cornell student-athletes have volunteered at Newfield. The connection between the community about 10 miles to the southwest of East Hill has been going on strong for seven years now, with Red Key being involved over the last two. The relationship began after an email from McCaffrey came across the desk of Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom Head Coach of Men's Hockey. Then a senior on the men's hockey team, Rodger Craig '14 responded to McCaffrey and soon two-thirds of the team was involved. McCaffrey then connected with Red Key through Mitch Vanderlaan '19, and the relationship between the two sides quickly reached new heights.
"My vision was to get both men's and women's teams involved to get a variety of different people from different backgrounds, and it's just been enormously successful," McCaffrey said. "It gives Cornell student-athletes an opportunity to help kids in Tompkins County, many of which don't come from privileged backgrounds. Our kids recognize that these volunteers are showing up to be with them, and it's tremendously special to them."
