JMU Softball Team's Summer Service

James Madison student-athletes are dedicated to serving their communities both in Harrisonburg and in their individual hometowns. The players and coaching staff of the softball team serve hundreds of hours over the summer in their neighborhoods in a variety of settings.

Many of the student-athletes help with youth and high school softball clinics, teaching what they've learned to the excited girls following in their footsteps. They also volunteered at food banks, animal shelters, retirement homes and schools.

Payton Buresch, of Downers Grove, Ill., and Kierstin Roadcap, of Harrisonburg, Va., spent a total of 22 hours serving with the Harrisonburg City Schools Mobile Café. During the summer, the mobile café provides free lunches to students who rely on the schools during the academic year for two of their three meals a day. The café travels to four different neighborhoods within Harrisonburg during the summer months.

"This has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying community service efforts," Roadcap said. "I got to make relationships with not only the kids that the mobile café served, but some of their parents as well. It is the simple things in life that matter most, and the children I got to interact with daily reminded me of that fact."

Katie Kudlacik, who hails from Emerson, N.J., gave 14 hours of her time to the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. The cancer center happens to be the most extensive in all of New Jersey. They specialize in bone marrow and stem cell transplants, as well as providing patients the option of CAR T-cell therapy, one of a few centers in the country to do so.

"It meant so much to me to be able to go there and give the patients food or even just socialize with them to make their days a little happier. It was very heartwarming to be able to lift someone's spirit while they were going through chemotherapy," Kudlacki said.

Lynsey Meeks, a native of Westerville, Ohio, volunteered 12 hours over the summer at the Learning Never Ends program in Columbus, Ohio. The program is part of the UpReach Group, whose goal is to provide individuals with developmental disabilities the opportunities and services to further their education and wellness.

"What I did was help them get where they needed to go, helped them in the bathroom, helped them with their lunches, and was simply their friend," Meeks explained. "People with mental disabilities have always had a special place in my heart because my brother is autistic, and he's the best person out there. This opportunity gave me a chance to spend time with people who have some of the most loving hearts you will ever see."

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Players Mentioned

Payton Buresch

Lynsey Meeks

Kierstin Roadcap

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