Coach’s efforts to remember Sandy Hook victims featured in N.Y. Times blog

The New York Times highlighted Quinnipiac University‘s head women’s soccer coach’s efforts to remember and honor the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School in a recent blog post.

Dave Clarke is working to keep the victims’ memories alive by auctioning 113 soccer jerseys autographed by the top players and teams from around the world. The money collected will be used to seed a scholarship fund.

“I had no idea how big that was going to be,” Clarke told the Times. “It’s been nonstop, but in a good way. I’m like a kid on Christmas going to the post office every morning, but it’s important to temper that excitement because the reason for the auction is not a happy one. Sandy Hook was something that tugged at the heartstrings of the world. We want to keep the victims’ names alive.”

Please click here to read the full story.

Quinnipiac’s Student Nurses Association collects Thanksgiving food baskets for area senior citizens

School of Nursing student Emily Schiarizzi, center, presents the Quinnipiac Student Nurses Association’s Thanksgiving food basket contributions to Florence Klemenz, left, and Cherylann Savo, resident service coordinators at the senior housing facility, just before Thanksgiving. (Photo by Donna Diaz.)

Thirty members of the Quinnipiac University Student Nurses Association collected enough nonperishable items to assemble 10 basket-sized tins full of nonperishable food items, supermarket gift certificates and hand-written cards for residents of the Davenport-Dunbar Residence in Hamden.

“The students work to help the community throughout the year,” said Donna Diaz, faculty adviser and lab coordinator in Quinnipiac’s School of Nursing. “The students learn about going beyond themselves through these activities. Nursing isn’t just about working in a hospital setting. It’s also about helping neighborhoods through health and wellness initiatives as well as other important support services. The students are so into it. They are aware of how needed and appreciated their volunteer work is in the community.”

Students to travel to Dominican Republic on service trip

Students Virginia Hally ’13, Andrea Siclari ’14 and Megan Hoffay ’14 held a bake sale to help fund a service trip to the Dominican Republic, planned for December 2012. (Photo courtesy of Callie Barkley.)

Twenty-three Quinnipiac students will travel to the Dominican Republic in December to help build a home for people living in a sugar cane village known as Batey 50.

The students are enrolled in the QU 301 seminar course on the global community, which focuses on students’ responsibilities, impact and investment in the global community. Students have been preparing for the trip during the fall semester through class discussions on human rights and poverty.

During the Dec. 28-Jan. 5 trip, students will help construct a home for one family in the Batey 50 community. Most families in the village live in huts made from banana leaves and tin, which have no foundations.

Students will also visit an orphanage, a hospital, a Haitian church and other Batey villages. On the final day of the trip, students will go door to door to distribute food to all families in the village.

Students will stay in the city of La Romana and travel daily to the Batey 50 village, about an hour and half each way. The trip is being led by John Powers, who is teaching the QU 301 course.

To learn more about the trip, follow the students’ blog: http://qudr2012.wordpress.com.

Three deans to serve as honorary chairs of JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes 2012 on Sept. 23

Three Quinnipiac University deans will serve as the honorary co-chairs of Walk to Cure Diabetes 2012, which raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The walk will get underway on the university’s North Haven Campus at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23. Pre-race activities begin at 9 a.m.

Bruce Koeppen, founding dean of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, Jean Lange, founding dean of the School of Nursing, and Ed O’Connor, dean of the School of Health Sciences, will lead the Quinnipiac delegation that will host the more than 3,000 local residents who are expected to attend the event. In addition, nursing students will perform blood pressure screenings. The School of Nursing also will offer children who attend an interactive educational opportunity using a VitalSim child mannequin to demonstrate heart and lung functions.

The money raised at the walk continues the work JDRF started in 1970, when the organization was founded by the parents of children with Type 1 diabetes. JDRF’s mission is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Walk to Cure represents the largest fundraiser of the year for the Greater New Haven Chapter of JDRF.

As many as 3 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, a disease most often diagnosed in childhood that strikes suddenly, lasts a lifetime and carries the constant threat of deadly complications, including heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and amputation. Sufferers of Type 1 diabetes must check their blood sugar by finger prick upwards of 10 times a day, account for every carbohydrate they eat, and remain constantly alert to potential changes in their blood sugar.

If you want to join, please click here to register and find out more information about how you can contribute to the Walk to Cure 2012. For more information,  call (203) 248-1880.

JDRF is the leading global organization focused on Type 1 diabetes research. Driven by passionate, grassroots volunteers connected to children, adolescents, and adults with this disease, JDRF is now the largest charitable supporter of T1D research. The goal of JDRF research is to improve the lives of every person affected by T1D by accelerating progress on the most promising opportunities for curing, better treating, and preventing T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners who share this goal.

Since its founding in 1970, JDRF has awarded more than $1.6 billion to diabetes research. Past JDRF efforts have helped to significantly advance the care of people with this disease, and have expanded the critical scientific understanding of T1D. JDRF will not rest until T1D is fully conquered. More than 80 percent of JDRF’s expenditures directly support research and research-related education. For more information, please visit www.jdrf.org.

Connecticut Athletic Trainers’ Association presents award to athletic training program

Quinnipiac athletic training and sports medicine students Timothy O’Brien ’12, left, Megan Hetrick ’13, Steven Gooler ’12 and Erin Adams ’12 educated the public at a March of Dimes fundraiser held at the university.

The Connecticut Athletic Trainers’ Association presented its 2012 Athletic Training Education Program Service Award to the athletic training and sports medicine program at Quinnipiac during its annual meeting on May 22 at Central Connecticut State University.

CATA created the award this year to encourage athletic training students to become more active in their professional and local communities by educating the public about the athletic training profession. CATA lauded Quinnipiac’s athletic training and sports medicine program for volunteering and raising awareness about athletic training at several venues, including at the Connecticut Legislature, a New Britain Rock Cats game and March of Dimes and Walk-For-Thought fundraisers held at Quinnipiac. CATA also credited Quinnipiac students for attending its annual symposium.

Athletic training is practiced by athletic trainers, health care professionals who collaborate with physicians to optimize patients and clients’ activity. Athletic training encompasses the prevention, assessment and intervention of emergency, acute and chronic medical conditions involving impairment, functional limitations and disabilities.

The minimum qualifications to become a certified athletic trainer include graduation with a bachelor’s or master’s degree from an accredited athletic training education program and passing a comprehensive certification examination administered by the board of certification. Once certified, athletic trainers are required to complete ongoing continuing education to remain certified.  Athletic trainers in Connecticut are licensed by the state Department of Public Health.