USU football team and parks and rec club help evacuees at Camp Williams

The parks and recreation club and the football team played dodgeball, softball and listened to stories from the Hurricane Katrina victims during their visit to Camp Williams Monday.

“It was a real good experience,” Donald Penn, an offensive lineman on the football team, said. “I enjoyed it a lot. They told us stories and it made us feel grateful and appreciative of what we have.”

The visit was organized by the parks and recreation club.

“In our major, we learn how to facilitate recreation,” Camille Johnson, club vice president, said. “We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use what we learned in class.”

After four hours on the phone, Johnson arranged the visit and then approached Guy about having players come along.

Head football coach Brent Guy said the team volunteered to tag along as soon as it heard about the visit.

“We had 12 spots and we had 30 guys that wanted to go,” he said. “I was really pleased that so many guys wanted to go, especially since it was their day off.”

Steve Jacson, a defensive player, said being around the victims helped him realize how much he has in his life.

“It makes you look at your day and realize how fortunate you are,” he said. “It was a good experience. I was happy I got to go.”

Guy said the team didn’t do much football stuff, but just being there helped the victims.

“Just letting them talk about their stories helped them,” he said. “All they wanted were friendly faces to talk with them.”

Johnson said the getting their minds off of the world was the biggest thing the victims needed.

“They’ve been drowned out about things they have to do, like get a job and get an apartment,” she said. “They were able to step away from the demands and have fun.”

Johnson said the USU delegation did its best not to steal the spotlight.

“It was just a night for them to take a step back and forget about their problems,” she said.

Guy said he had thought about trying to help the victims before, but after the visit, he saw that there was not much he or the team could do.

“I had thought about it, but the people of Utah have been so generous,” he said. “They really don’t have much need [at Camp Williams].”

Johnson said there were 11 students from the parks and recreation club along with their adviser that went.

Guy was accompanied by 12 players and cornerback coach John Rushing.