Remembering camping trips and horseback riding, Kasey Tolbert has always had a place in her heart for horses.
One of the recently named captains of the swimming and diving team, the junior from Yorktown, Ind., looked forward to the team's community service project last Saturday at the Last Chance Corral.
The corral is an organization that cares for horses that have no home and otherwise might be slaughtered.
I've always liked horses
Tolbert said. It's really a great experience to actually get to work because at school you don't ever get to be around horses or anything. Just being here with them is a whole new experience. It's really fun and you get to see the actual beings that you're helping.
The team went to the Last Chance Corral as part of its annual spring community service project.
For the past two years, the team has participated in Athens Beautification Day. Last year, the team went to an elementary school, spreading mulch and planting flowers around the school.
This year, however, schedules conflicted and the team wanted to help out a different program, Tolbert said.
The Bobcats found that program in the form of the Last Chance Corral.
The Last Chance Corral was founded by Victoria Goss in 1986 as an asylum for unwanted newborn foals whose owners, for one reason or another, could not keep the animals. There are also animals that are infirm.
If not for the Last Chance Corral, these horses would be taken to the slaughterhouse, according to the organization's website. Because of Goss's work at the charity just south of Athens, she and the Last Chance Corral won the American Veterinary Medical Association's Human Award in 2001.
The captains, who decide on the project, chose this charity based on its message and work.
We found out about this Last Chance Corral and decided it'd be a really great place to help out
Tolbert said.
Tolbert said the main reason for helping the community comes from the wish to repay the support the team receives during the season.
Coach Greg Werner said the athletes want to give back to the community more often, but time doesn't permit the team as a whole to participate until the spring.
This won't be the only community service the team does. Team members also work with Rufus Reads and Big Sister, Little Sister programs.
Werner said this speaks volumes about the character of his team as athletes and people.
This generation definitely is much more active and involved than my generation was
said Werner. That's something that I really admire and respect about this generation that they care for each other and want to give back and help.
The team also sees the spring project as a team-building exercising.
At the Last Chance Corral, the athletes cleaned the barns, fed the horses and did other chores. They had to work as a team to finish the job.
It's a very good team bonding activity
junior Amanda Traylor said. It shows that even though (swimming and diving) is a very individual sport
it's also very team-orientated and that our team is very close.
Werner could only praise the work and dedication of his athletes.
We're all committing and sacrificing
he said. I'm sure that there are people who would like to be out in the sun or at one of the festivals
or whatever it is on any given weekend. But it's something that we're all doing together
and it's something that we all feel good about.
