The Student Athlete Advisory Committee welcomed about 60 children from the Abilene Boys and Girls Club to accompany them in the baseball game Tuesday night.

The Abilene Boys and Girls Club was designed to make sure every child is a priority by providing them with affordable after-school care, mentoring and multiple club opportunities.

Wildcat student athletes were able to contribute to the children’s club by bringing them to an open environment with positive role models to learn and gain support from ACU students.

The children were dropped off at ACU before the baseball game so SAAC leaders could take them to dinner and get to know them.

Kyle Karnei, SAAC president, organized the event in hopes of being able to give back to the community.

“It was awesome,” said Karnei, sophomore accounting major from McGregor. “The kids loved the baseball game. For some of them, this was their first baseball game ever.”

The event was initially created as a way of honoring and celebrating National Student Athlete Day on April 6.

This is the first time SAAC has been able to participate in something like this, and it’s unlikely that it will be the last.

“I want to find a group of children from the Abilene Boys and Girls Club that SAAC can partner up with and develop a relationship that lasts for many years,” Karnei said.

SAAC hopes to continue this contribution to the community by getting more involved with the Boys & Girls Club of Abilene and volunteering their time to help the children grow.

SAAC member Kenzie Walker, sophomore nursing major from Abilene, found the event to be more than a success.

“The kids really enjoyed being able to hang out with us,” Walker said. “Not only the kids, but we had so much fun as well. I was even able to dance with my air guitar with some little girls.”

This volunteer work was unlike typical volunteer work for the ACU students.

“I loved being able to put a smile on their faces and laugh with them, because we don’t know anything about their home life,” Walker said. “We don’t know if their life at home is good or bad, but we know they had fun that night.”