Hilltoppers With Heart, sponsored by Passport Health Plan, was founded in 2011 and is designed to give WKU student-athletes, coaches and staff the unique opportunity to make an impact in the community by volunteering time and talent with numerous organizations including The United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs, local schools and many more. Passport Health Plan is a provider-sponsored, non-profit, community-based Medicaid health plan that has been contracted with Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services to administer Medicaid benefits since 1997. Medicaid members can choose Passport to be their health care provider, and as of June 30, 2014, there are more than 6,300 Passport members living in Region 4, which includes Warren County and the campus of Western Kentucky University.
Here is a look at some of the community volunteering activities WKU Athletics has done over the past couple months:
Prior to competing against the University of South Florida in the Miami Beach Bowl, WKU football achieved 600 volunteering hours with Feeding South Florida, the leading domestic hunger-relief organization in South Florida. The Hilltoppers teamed up with USF to help create over 4,000 meals for the South Florida community.
WKU football continued its volunteering efforts on Friday, Feb. 5, as four student-athletes read to elementary school students at Bowling Green's Lost River Elementary School.
The athletics department celebrated National Women's and Girls in Sports Day on Saturday, Feb. 27, as WKU hosted an event in E.A. Diddle Arena for over 70 girls from the community. Lady Topper teams including, Track and Field, Cheer & Dance and golf, led the girls through various stationed activities. These activities included soccer drills, cheering stations, dance stations, basketball `knock out" games, volleyball hitting lessons and hula hoop games. The event lasted for an hour and half and each girl in attendance received a FREE ticket to Saturday's women's basketball game against UAB.
The WKU volleyball team continued their good work throughout the greater Bowling Green community throughout the month of February.
Lady Topper student-athletes took time to speak at Foundation Christian Academy's WKU Day on Thursday, Feb. 25, where they spoke to students about what it's like to be a college student-athlete.
During halftime of the women's basketball game against UAB on Feb. 27, head coach Travis Hudson presented a check for $3,100 to both the Friends of Jacklyn Foundation and Hope for Harlie charity to help the fight against childhood cancer.
The Wednesday prior to the halftime presentation, WKU volleyball coaches and players surprised honorary team member Harlie Bryant, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the spring of 2011, with a birthday party at her school. Bryant was celebrating her 10th birthday.
The WKU softball team continued its Big Red Readers program on Wednesday, March 2, as the Lady Toppers celebrated Read Across America Day by reading to elementary students at Rockfield Elementary School.
