Garden City, N.Y. - The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced legislation last September that annually prohibited its membership from congregating in athletic activities on Election Day, in order to encourage student-athletes to participate in civic engagement.

Several of Adelphi's teams took the initiative this year by using the mandatory day off to help out in the community.

"The Adelphi University Department of Athletics is committed to the community, giving back to the world around us and engaging in our civic duties. It was important for us to take a day, in the middle of our athletic schedules, where we set athletics to the side and focus on our community," said Adelphi Director of Athletics and Campus Recreation Danny McCabe. 

The men's soccer team spent the day at George McVey Elementary School and assisted with an array of projects.

A multiculturally diverse school in East Meadow that has a representation of over sixty nationalities among its pupils, the team worked on completing a "Corridor of Flags" to promote the different cultures that encompass the student body and assembled an interactive map of the United States in the school playground that displays the location of all the states.

The student-athletes also restocked and distributed food items in the pantry that is a daily resource for a large contingent of families within the McVey community and drafted positive messages across the school's six bathrooms, where students often seek refuge when they are distressed or having a difficult time.

The Adelphi volleyball team took a trip to the Queens County Farm Museum in Floral Park and engaged in agricultural activities, which included gathering and sifting the compost in the fields, weeding in-between rhubarb plants and feeding the goats and sheep at the farm.

Other teams chipped in virtually or around the Adelphi campus.

The Adelphi men's lacrosse team produced dog toys for the North Shore Animal League and even hand-delivered a rope toy for Adelphi President Dr. Christine Riordan's dog, Georgia.

In a similar fashion, the Adelphi softball team took the time to donate Halloween packages filled with candy to deployed service members and veterans, as part of the Soldiers' Angels Treats for Troops initiative.

Lastly, the Adelphi field hockey team lent a hand by participating in a trash collection along the Adelphi grounds, in an effort to keep its campus clean.