A huge part of our success, and really the core values of our team lie in the impact we are trying to leave on our school, our community, and with the upcoming trip to Africa, the world. “Impact men” is what it says at the top of our list of goals for our program. To be an impact man is to serve the community selflessly, to bring a positive influence into the lives of those involved with our program, and to carry that positive influence into the outreach actions we participate in. A large part of our impact men goals involve community service. Throughout our year we make time to visit local grade schools to interact with and read to the kids in the Des Moines schools. We make weekly visits to the Blank Children's Hospital when our winter conditioning and spring ball seasons begin. Our players are actively involved in youth daycares and outreach programs such as the Wilky House and Boys and Girls clubs in Des Moines. We spend weekends helping veterans from both current and past wars at the veteran’s hospital, and have made time to interact with the families and children of deployed soldiers. Most recently we competed with other Drake teams and amongst ourselves in the assembly of some 51,000 meals for the “meals from the heartland.”
What does being impact men do for our team? The community, especially the interaction with all the kids has attracted the family atmosphere to our games and our school. The service brings us, as a team, closer together when we interact with one another in an environment that is different than the social and competitive nature that make up much of the football practices and college grind. The community service exposes the world to us in a different life and this experience is better prepared for the world outside of school. The community action has given us opportunities and initiative to take action, like the upcoming trip to Africa. From the football camps that we are going to carry with us from the U.S. to Tanzania, to the strength and commitment it will take to build and work for the people over there we are going to graduate from local impact to global impact.
- Eugene “EJ” Walter 97
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
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