Cobbers Kick Off Season At Great Plains Food Bank

MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/05/12)—The Concordia swimming and diving team kicked off their 2012-13 season the same way they have for the past 10 seasons – they went on a team bonding outing and volunteered for a community service project.

"I started having my team volunteer for a service project because I wanted to get the athletes away from Concordia and into the community," commented head coach Julie Lucier. "I got the idea from the Hands For Change program and really like the way people can be pulled together when they volunteer for a service project.

This year, like the past seven years, the Cobbers volunteered at the Great Plains Food Bank. The team spent Thursday afternoon repackaging pasta into smaller bags for individual family use."

"The work wasn't as tough as training so it was nice to get outside the pool for a day," said sophomore Celia Peloquin. "It was fun to be together with the team and know that we were doing something for the community."

True to their competitive spirit, the Cobbers surpassed the food bank's goal for Concordia to process six seven pallets of the bulk pasta. "It was nice to be able to reach our goal," said Peloquin who is no stranger to volunteer duty after working at her local resource center in high school.  "It was a great way to help out the community and an even better way for our team to come together and get to know one another early in the season."

Concordia will open their season on Sunday, Oct. 14 when they host their Alumni Meet at noon. The Cobbers will then compete at the UM-Morris Relays on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.