For one of her exercise science classes, she had the opportunity to assist in coaching a little-kids’ soccer team through the Adair County YMCA. Every Friday evening she would go to the YMCA (sometimes, she would even run there and back, which consists of a several miles) to coach her team. Following those practices, every Saturday morning she would be there to encourage and coach her team through their weekly game. I know that the little kids loved having her coach them.

Not only does she coach youngsters, she also came up with the idea to start an intramural indoor soccer team for our house. The idea started when she would ask people in our community to go outside and play soccer with her, which helped build our community even more. The ideas started to roll, and she decided to hang up a sign to see who was interested in the team. Once she organized the team, she held an initial team meeting to work out the logistics of the team and some practices. She hung fliers around our community and wrote on our calendar in our lounge about upcoming practices and games. She also encouraged many other people to come be fans at our games. At the soccer games, she was our “Coach.” She instructed our team on the schedule, the rules of the game, and how to play because not everyone knew how to play soccer. She was constantly encouraging even when some beginners were a little apprehensive about playing. Win or lose, she always stayed upbeat and positive about our team and loved the idea that we all came out to play together. I know I appreciated her doing this for our community because it gave the residents one more positive thing to do together.

To continue on with her interest of exercise science, she pledged Phi Epsilon Kappa Fraternity (PEK), which is for “persons engaged in or pursuing careers in health, physical education, recreation, or safety.” As a new member of PEK, I believe it would have been easy for her or anyone else to just watch and see how things are done in the organization but not Megan. When the new members were told to come up with some kind of fundraiser to raise money to donate to children in our town for Christmas presents, Megan gladly took the lead. She initiated the idea to host a daily bake sale in our residence hall to earn money. Megan confided in me by saying that she was not receiving the help she and the organization needed to do complete this fundraiser. To fill in the missing spots of what needed to be done, Megan came to the rescue. I watched her make the advertisements, drag the baked good items to and from the table, coordinate volunteers to work the table, organize the money and actually work at the baked goods table. She told me that they are near their $200 goal, which will allow for eight children to receive Christmas presents this year.

For all the things that Megan has done for our community, whether in our residence hall or for the campus or for our town, Megan completely deserves to be the first-year student OTM winner for November!

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