Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirl Track Athletes Celebrate Halloween At Local Retirement Home
June 04, 2003 | Cowgirl Cross Country & Track
Junior Tiffany Davis, and Freshmen Lee Ann Tracy, Ashley Pfeffer, Porsha Drone, Jere Boykin, Shalay Thomas and Kathy Hashimoto represented the women's track team. The track girls weren't alone. Members of the OSU wrestling and football teams were there, along with several OSU cheerleaders.
Ashley Pfeffer, a freshman track athlete, encouraged her teammates to give up their Halloween evening to visit the retirement home. Pfeffer heard about the opportunity for OSU athletes in a life skills class that she is taking at OSU.
"Apparently the athletic department does this every year," Pfeffer said. "I just thought that it sounded like something fun for us to do to give something back to the community."
The athletes spent the evening having a Halloween party with the residents. As an extra bonus, one resident was celebrating her 88th birthday. After all the other athletes had gone home for the evening, the track team stuck around and sang "Happy Birthday" to the woman.
"We had a really good time. Older people are so much fun to spend time with because they have such great stories to tell," Pfeffer said.
Kim Whitaker, assistant track coach, said the girls' visit to the retirement home was a good team building opportunity.
"I often stress to the girls that they are good ambassadors for OSU, both on the track and in the community," Whitaker said. "It's these kinds of things, like visiting a retirement home, that make us closer as a team. After we left the home, we all stood outside together for a while. It was a real emotional experience for us."
Whitaker said she encourages the members of the track team to participate in community activities once a month. She also said that she feels like these kinds of activities show the true character of her track athletes.
"Coach Acosta, the women's head coach, entrusted us to recruit these kinds of girls this year. We didn't just look for great athletes. We looked for great people. These girls have character, and that will shine both on and off of the track," Whitaker said.
As for the girls, they hope to go back to the retirement home, in addition to doing more community activities in the near future.
"Sometimes student-athletes don't have the greatest of reputations, but that is because people don't really know us. We hope that by doing these kinds of things, we can help to improve those reputations, as well as give something back to the community that supports us," Pfeffer said.
