Randolph College Women's Lacrosse: Women's Lacrosse Volunteers at the Virginia 10 Miler

The Genworth Virginia 10 Miler celebrated its 41st year of racing on September 26th, 2014 with over 4,000 participants. The races included a 10 mile run and a 4 mile run or walk with competitors of all ages. Several of our Randolph college student body organizations decided to take part in the community with this historic and exciting event. Randolph College served as the finishing point of the 4 miler event and the Randolph College Women’s Lacrosse team was able to volunteer and have the honor of handing out medals to the finishers of the run and walk portion of the 4 miler event. Two of the members of our team talked about their volunteering experiences.

In yellow from left to right, Samantha Fagone 15', Alyssa Umberger 17', and Kristiana Kuqi 18' are handing out medals at the finish line

For many of the members on the team this was their first time volunteering for this event, like Addie Moore 17' from Lexington, VA. She said, “This was my first experience volunteering for The VA 10 miler event, but a lot of my older friends and teammates had previously volunteered for this event and said the experience was really amazing. Now that I have volunteered for the event I completely agree with them on what an amazing experience it was and I look forward to doing it again!” As an all around consensus on the team everyone had a great time and loved the positive environment that the event brought. Casey Coleman 18' stated, “As a team, we stood at the finish line and distributed medals to the runners and walkers who participated. It was super fun and rewarding because seeing people finish something that they trained for, pushed themselves to complete, and maybe even never imagined themselves finishing was inspiring. I really enjoyed giving them a reward to acknowledge their efforts and seeing the happiness and satisfaction on their faces!”This event was also a great team building activity for us because we were able to have this gratifying experience together and have the satisfaction of congratulating these amazing people for their finish. Another rare occurrence that the race brought us was the experience to see four people from Nigeria run in the race and also members from our own Randolph cross country team who competed and did very well. We enjoyed watching Dani Hill 17' who was Randolph’s first Women’s XC runner to cross the finish line. She posted the second-fastest four mile time in program history and she was the first finisher for the 15-19 age group.

Coleman 18' later stated, “Because I am a student at this small Liberal Arts school, I am provided with numerous opportunities to take a part in community events and help out with local businesses.” Having this opportunity at our fingertips as a team and a school community to be involved in Lynchburg and this event was a perfect way for helping Casey, as a freshman, to get settled in at Randolph, a new town, and new environment. She also said, “When I was moving to Randolph in August for freshman orientation, I was worried about how many friends I would make, but within the first couple of days I had made so many friends right away thanks to the lacrosse team, the Community Service day that all of the first years did, and orientation.” Moore 17' also agreed with Coleman saying, “I remember when I first got here and right away I had a group of about fifteen automatic friends on the lacrosse team that no matter would be there for me.” They both agreed in saying that being a part of Randolph’s Women’s Lacrosse team and having these great group of ladies and coaches supporting us helps us to reach out into the community and give back, but also to grows us as a team.