SMSU athletes put up downtown holiday lights
SMSU athletes put up downtown holiday lights
Photo by Deb Gau SMSU Mustang football team members worked to help string lights on trees along Main Street on Monday afternoon. Julius Brown and Malachi Kohls worked to try and reach the lower branches of a tree outside Patzer's, while Drew Kolbeck and Manny Griego steadied the ladder.
Photo by Deb Gau Benjamin Steele, Coy Vrbka and Levi Maeyaert worked to string lights on trees in downtown Marshall on Monday.
Photo by Deb Gau Caden Jurci and Malachi James teamed up to wind a string of lights around a tree trunk downtown.
Photo by Deb Gau SMSU Mustang football team members worked to help string lights on trees along Main Street on Monday afternoon. Julius Brown and Malachi Kohls worked to try and reach the lower branches of a tree outside Patzer's, while Drew Kolbeck and Manny Griego steadied the ladder.
Photo by Deb Gau Benjamin Steele, Coy Vrbka and Levi Maeyaert worked to string lights on trees in downtown Marshall on Monday.
Photo by Deb Gau Caden Jurci and Malachi James teamed up to wind a string of lights around a tree trunk downtown.
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MARSHALL -- Getting Marshall's Main Street ready for the holiday season might seem like a big task. But student athletes from Southwest Minnesota State University were making fast progress on Monday afternoon.
Members of the SMSU Mustang football team split up into groups to string holiday lights on the trees lining downtown streets. Some of the smaller trees only took a couple of athletes to decorate. Caden Jurci and Malachi James were working together to wind a string of lights around a tree trunk outside the M
arshall Decorating Center.At the same time, more Mustangs were working together to get lights on some taller trees across the street. Julius Brown climbed a stepladder to reach the lower branches of a tree, while teammates held the ladder steady.
Helping with the downtown lights is just one of the volunteer opportunities that SMSU athletes have participated in this year, said SMSU Vice President for Athletics Travis Whipple. For the past couple of years, the athletics department has worked with the Marshall Downtown Business Association to set up a time to put up the lights.
SMSU athletes are active in the community in ways that "run the gamut" of volunteer work, Whipple said. Some of the volunteer work student athletes do includes outreach to students at Marshall schools, like "High Five Fridays," where university students greet and encourage children.
Whipple said SMSU Athletics has completed about 3,000 hours of community service so far this year.