For just the second time ever, the Methodist University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has won the USA South's Cans Across the Conference food drive competition, raising a total of 20,020 non-perishable items that will have a direct impact on the Fayetteville community.
 
After collecting 5,630 items last year, SAAC president Rachel Blanchard says the group's goal this year was to raise 10,000 items.
 
"It feels unbelievable that we got double our goal," Blanchard said. "I remember two months ago talking with DeeDee [Jarman] and feeling like 10,000 cans was so far away and unattainable. But we did it."
 
The majority of the items collected at Methodist were donated on Friday morning to Fayetteville Urban Ministry, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing resources to those in need in the Cumberland County area. Methodist basketball alum Johnny Wilson is the organization's president and chief executive officer.
   
In total, Wilson said that the non-perishable food items alone donated by the Monarchs exceeded 3,000 lb., with packs of water additionally filling the shelves and even taking up extra floor space around the shelves.
 
Methodist's total also included items that went toward providing two full Thanksgiving meals to families stationed at Fort Bragg, marking the second year in a row that the Monarchs have provided Thanksgiving meals for local U.S. Army families.
 
Jarman, who serves as an advisor for SAAC, says Blanchard set the goal of taking first place in the competition at the end of last academic year, when she had just been elected as president.

"She told me last spring, 'We will win.' We had some virtual meetings throughout the summer. She was very motivated. She about wore me out," Jarman joked.
 
"She worked hard, she motivated our student-athletes, she motivated our coaches. She did a phenomenal job and I applaud her," Jarman said. "The whole entire SAAC supported her, and I applaud the SAAC this year. They did a great job."
 
The SAAC executive board, led by Blanchard, organized several initiates to encourage donations by students, staff and alumni, including a "dorm wars" competition that rewarded a free Chipotle dinner to the students of the dorm on campus that raised the most items, as well as a staff kickball game that required a donation of non-perishable items to play or spectate.
 
One highly successful event was the "fill it, pie it" fundraiser, which involved a three-tier system. If members of Methodist's campus filled up a shopping cart with non-perishables on the "fill it" day, they would be able to pie SAAC vice president Vincent Edmunds on the "pie it" day the following week. If the trunk of a car was also filled up, Director of Athletics Dave Eavenson and Jarman, the Deputy Director of Athletics, would also be eligible for pieing. If the entire bed of a pickup truck was full at the end of the "fill it" day, Rebecca King (Senior Director of One Stop Academic Services), Dr. William H. Walker (Vice President for Student Affairs), Dr. Clifton Bobbitt (Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs) and Dr. Suzanne Blum Malley (Executive Vice President and Provost) would all be willing to get pied.
   
All three goals were achieved, resulting in a lot of canned goods for the cause and many smiling faces on "pie it" day.
The other campaign that helped Methodist raise so many items was the competition within the competition — a spirited battle between Methodist's sports teams to see which squad could contribute the most to the institution's overall total. Alumni, parents and student-athletes all pitched in in an effort to win their team some campus bragging rights, and at the end of the donation period, the softball team took the crown. Including monetary donations, the softball team raised an equivalent of 4,663 items. Second place went to the cross country and track & field program, which brought in the most physical items without collecting monetary donations at 3,825 non-perishables. Finally, the men's lacrosse team was the third team on campus to finish with quadruple digits, raising 3,235 items including monetary donations.
 
Blanchard says that the competitions on campus turned out just like she'd hoped.
 
"I knew we did a sports team competition for Pennies for a Purpose (the USA South's spring semester charity initiative) but wondered why we never did it for Cans Across the Conference," Blanchard said. "I knew if I invoked a competitive spirit between the teams that we would for sure raise a good amount. Posting on our Instagram and calling out baseball's empty shelf for example, was something I knew would drive us, despite the pettiness of it. I knew there were important faculty and staff members that everyone would like to watch get pied. But a simple two cans per pie plate wasn't enough to me. I wanted to fill up something outrageous to be able to pie as much as we wanted."
 
Though Methodist was the only institution to surpass 20,000 items, Brevard College came in second place with 17,694, which would have been more than enough to win last year's competition. Efforts to keep collecting items all the way up to Thursday's midnight deadline helped the Monarchs finish on top.
 
A large donation on Thursday afternoon certainly played a factor in helping earn the Monarchs a victory in the USA South competition. Methodist baseball alum Starsky Norman, owner of the Norman Showcase Academy, arrived at the March F. Riddle Center with a truck bed that was filled to the brim with packs of water and carboard flats of canned goods.  
Blanchard noted how cool it was to get to share this win with former Monarchs and how grateful she was for the support from all around campus.
 
"Being able to share this with special alumni like Johnny Wilson and Starsky Norman made my love for this school community much sweeter," she said. "Knowing that I did something to help recognize all the hard work of my advisor DeeDee Jarman, the student-athletes that helped me raise so much, and every department and program that donated is very special. I was never alone in this effort. I had plenty of faculty, staff, and students who helped me reach this crazy dream goal that feels unreal."
 
Methodist's 20,020 items are the third most raised by an institution in the history of the USA South's Cans Across the Conference competition. It's also the fourth year in a row that the Monarchs have seen an uptick in the number of items they've raised.

Led by Methodist, USA South institutions collectively donated 59,904 non-perishables to different organizations this fall, which is the third-most in the competition's history. Over the 21–year history of the USA South's Cans Across The Conference initiative, member institutions have donated a total of 719,503 items to various local organizations.