Athletes from Concordia College Alabama gave back to the community Friday in of the first of many service projects to come. Concordia’s football and soccer team volunteered hours of their time at Minnie B. Anderson Homes picking up trash, cutting hedges, weed eating and moving debris from trees.

“Our goal is to get out into the community of Selma and this is a start,” Don Lee, Concordia athletic director said. “This is an opportunity that opened up the doors for us to come in and clean up, and this is good to get some players to stay around here on a Friday, especially to help out. We’re excited about where we’re starting and where we’re going.”

Lee said the athletes were not required to volunteer, but it was something the students wanted to do.

“This is just something that we’re going to start doing as a new era, we’re just going to go out and try to give a helping hand,” he said. “This is the first of many [service projects] to come.”

Hornets quarterback Cameron Mayfield said by supporting the community he hopes the community would support Concordia.

“We’re out here helping the community. Cleaning up, making efforts trying to show the community that Concordia is still in Selma, so we can have more support for our games,” Mayfield said. “It’s to get more support and to show the community that we can help, and that the community can help us too.”

Concordia linebacker Devontae Beach agreed.

“It feels good giving back to the community. Nobody else is going to come back here and do it,” Beach said. “The athletic department is the role models around the school. We plan to step up and show people the right way of doing things. Most athletic people are labeled as the troublemakers, but we’re the good guys on campus.”

Beach said he and the team volunteered willingly and looks forward to projects to come.

“I think it’s great for a lot of them to learn about giving back. Some of them have maybe overlooked these types of things,” Emanuel Stephens, Concordia soccer coach said. “I think a lot of them have really put in a lot of work; I was impressed and surprised at some of them at their ambition to give back.”

Stephens said giving back and doing community service work is always a good thing.

“I think it could be contagious, and something that the whole city needs as well. I know there are some people doing things in the community, but I think it would be better for everybody in the whole community as a whole [to give back],” Stephens said. “I think once they get more exposed to it, we could change a lot of people’s lives. The players and also the people that we help.”

Beyond trimming the hedges and cleaning up trash, Mayfield saw a bigger purpose in helping those in need. He saw it as a chance to give them hope.

“When no one helps them, they feel like they have no hope, so we’re trying to give them hope,” Mayfield said.

Stephens agreed and said by seeing the work being done in the community, “hopefully it will give them aspiration to help themselves as well.”