During November and December of 2013, The Central Arkansas Athletic Training Students’ Association (CAATSA) held its Annual Holiday Food Drive in conjunction with the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) Kinesiology and Physical Education Department. CAATSA is supervised and mentored by Allen Crawford, MS, LAT, ATC who is an athletic trainer and instructor in the Athletic Training Program. He has served in this role for the past seven years.
The food drive is held annually on campus and has allowed CAATSA along with other UCA students to donate approximately 450 pounds of non-perishable food items to the Bethlehem House of Conway. CAATSA has held the annual food drive since 2008 and to date has donated over 2,200 pounds of non-perishable food items to various food pantries in the Conway community.
Bethlehem House serves a pantry and shelter for families in the Conway, AR community. Bethlehem House offers case management, employment assistance, life skills training, advocacy, education, vocational counseling, transportation, guidance, and the support necessary to recover from the devastation of homelessness. For more information, you can visit their website at www.bethlehemhouse.net.
In addition to the food drive, CAATSA completed another community service project during the holiday season of 2013. The CAATSA students participated in the Samaritan’s Purse: Operation Christmas Child and bought small gifts to fill shoe boxes for underprivileged children around the world. Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine. This is the first year the association has participated in Operation Christmas Child and in a short amount of time CAATSA was able to donate approximately 10 shoe boxes of toys. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has donated over 100 million shoe boxes with toys to children worldwide. For more information on Samaritan’s Purse visit www.samaritanspurse.org.
CASATA is a Recognized Student Organization at UCA. Its membership is made of students who have been accepted into the UCA Athletic Training Education program. Our objectives are to promote the profession of Athletic Training and uphold the standards of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. For more information regarding this association, contact Allen Crawford at acrawford@uca.edu.