Welcome back Cougar fans! I hope and pray that everyone had a safe and fun summer. I know mine flew by faster than any of the previous summers I can remember. It seems surreal that my 24 sisters and I are already in the swing of things back at school and just about done with preseason. Although we have only been here for 10 days, so many amazing things have happened, already creating memories we will never forget. This year, we welcome six new freshmen and a fellow senior back to join our tight-knit team. Those introductions, though, will come in a later blog. I wanted to dedicate this blog to one project that has transformed into something we have and will continue throughout the season put our heart and soul into.

At the end of the summer, Papa Coach (Rick Seiffert) introduced an idea at our last meeting. He wanted us to start thinking bigger than our own lives and think about helping others. In order to get us to start thinking about others before ourselves, he gave us all a dollar with only one stipulation. He wanted us to trade up for something bigger and better. The assignment was to think of ways throughout the summer to trade that simple dollar to get something, whether monetary or material items, to contribute to help children in some way, shape, or form. When we gathered together at the end of the summer, the stories were outstanding! Many girls found people who would match their dollar for two and continued to do so until they raised more money than they had started with. Some of the stories however, were a lot more in-depth and creative. A few of the girls ended up with very valuable things such as concert tickets or rare records which they then sold online to even greater increase their final monetary value. Just from the short three months of summer we had to work on trading up our dollar for something bigger and better, we ended up with approximately $400.

After coming together the first week of preseason and discussing our stories, we wanted to include the incoming freshmen in this team project. In order to make sure the freshmen got the chance to help out, Coach thought it would be fun to split up into six groups - one for each freshman. He then gave each group a dollar and sent us out into Mount Vernon to try and trade up that dollar to increase the amount of items to donate to the children fundraiser. The crazy thing about this project is that in the two hours we had that night we ended up with more monetary and material value than in the three months of summer we had worked on the project. The stories from that night alone could take up multiple blogs, but just a summary of the ending items I think will show the immense success we had.

Some of the crazy items the girls ended up with included a brand new, never opened colored printer and a fully working computer with all the necessary cords and accessories. All in all, the ending monetary amount of the two hours we spent perusing Mount Vernon was somewhere close to $600, making our total amount for the "Better or Better” project close to $1,000. After seeing how much we could raise in just two hours when working as a team, we decided this was something we wanted to continue throughout the season. Although we haven’t yet decided where we are going to donate the funds we have and will raise, we hope and pray that it is going to not only help just one person but many families. It was truly amazing to see how God can work through you when you let yourself be a vessel for Him to use. Even in the midst of these hard economic times, people still found a way to help out others in need, showing that although everyone is going through hard times, people still choose to help out each other.

So this is our challenge to everyone reading this blog: Can you help us make a difference in the lives of children? Throughout the season, we have chosen to continue this project of trading what we have for things bigger and better, knowing God will bless us as we use our time to show people His love. If anyone wants to help us raise items, whether its monetary or material items, talk to any of us girls and we will be more than willing to get you all the information. Our prayer for this project is that as we look outside ourselves and try to show God’s love to the less fortunate we will impact everyone who helps us in our process. Ultimately, it’s about showing people we are different because we have the love of Christ inside of us and we want to share it with everyone we meet. I am so excited to see God move through this project, even more than He already has, and to see the end result because I know it will be way more than we ever imagined.