SU Sport Management Club raises nearly $125,000 for local charities, makes $24,000 gift to CNY SPCA

Since its founding in 2005, the Syracuse University Sport Management (SPM) Club, a student-run organization in the College of Human Ecology’s Department of Sport Management, has donated nearly $125,000 to Central New York charities. As a result of its most successful annual sport auction to date in December 2010, the SPM Club made a $24,000 gift to the Central New York SPCA. The SPM Club’s donation will help to fund the equipment needed for its new on-site medical facility.

“Giving back to the Syracuse community that our students call home for four years was the founding premise of the SPM Club, and we’re so pleased by how they’ve embraced this philosophy,” says Kate Veley, manager of the career center and event planning for SU’s Department of Sport Management, and the 2010 auction chair. “We also sincerely appreciate the support of the greater Syracuse community and all the companies and individuals who have contributed to our success over the past six years. Hopefully our gift will go a long way toward enabling the CNY SPCA to continue educating the public, while rescuing and treating animals from across the area.”

“Once again, the Sport Management Club’s annual charity sports auction brings to life the values inherent in the mission of the College of Human Ecology—and what we instill in our students—which is the importance of social responsibility and giving back to others and to our community,” says Diane Lyden Murphy, dean of the College of Human Ecology. “I couldn’t be prouder of the students, faculty and staff involved in making this event an overwhelming success year after year.”

Other local charities supported by the SPM Club’s auction proceeds in previous years have included the Syracuse Boys and Girls Clubs, the American Diabetes Association of Central New York, the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Upstate and Ronald McDonald House Charities of CNY.

“I would like to thank all the students and staff from the SU Sport Management Club and the Department of Sport Management who made this event possible. It was a truly amazing night and the dollars raised will go a long way to assist us in our mission of helping animals from across the county. Everyone at the CNY SPCA truly appreciates this gift and the generosity it represents from the Syracuse community,” says Paul Morgan, executive director of the CNY SPCA.

This week, the SPM Club will be recognized with a 2011 Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship (its sixth consecutive award of this kind). In 2009, the SPM Club received the inaugural Orange Circle Award from the SU Alumni Association to honor SU alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments in support of others.