Dec. 8, 2008

Garden City, N.Y. - If its one thing that athletes go through a lot of, its sneakers. So when called upon to donate old sneakers for the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe project, this was a simple task for members of Adelphi University's men's lacrosse and cross-country/track teams.

"The team felt it was important to help out. This is something that everyone could do," said freshman Andrew "Mookie" Alderman, a member of the Adelphi men's lacrosse team.

The Nike Reuse-A-Shoe program collects used sneakers, close to 22 million to date, which are then turned into NIKE Grind, a base material used in playgrounds, basketball courts, synthetic turf and running tracks. In fact, the indoor recreation surface in the new Center for Recreation & Sports includes recycled materials. "We go through a lot of shoes with the amount of mileage the team does," said Matthew Dispensa, a graduate student on the cross-country/track team. "This was an easy way to give back and help the environment."

The recycle project was coordinated by Professor Debra Little through Adelphi's ICAN: Imagine Change, Act Now! project. ICAN is a forum for a wide-ranging series of events, actions and activities highlighting contemporary and historical work for social change related to basic human rights. The project involves multiple campus constituencies in a collaborative and interdisciplinary effort to educate, inspire, empower and engage our Adelphi community through learning about, as well as taking part in, local and global actions to create the world we dream about.