Wittenberg Women's Basketball Helps Raise Funds For Service Projects In Lesotho, Africa

---

Head Coach Sarah Jurewicz (left) accompanied Wittenberg students to Lesotho in 2009.

Springfield, Ohio — The Wittenberg University women's basketball team, regular season champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) and host of the 2010 NCAC Tournament Friday, Feb. 26 and Saturday, Feb. 27, is joining forces with the Witt-In-Africa project to benefit children of the impoverished African kingdom of Lesotho.

Much like fundraising efforts that took place during the volleyball team's Border Battle Sept. 18-19, 2009, donations will be accepted throughout the weekend by representatives of Witt-In-Africa in the HPER Center's Legends Lobby. Money raised will go to the Leratong Orphan Scholarship Fund, which provides uniforms, school supplies and tuition to attend school for children in Roma, Lesotho.

Two groups of Wittenberg students, faculty and staff members participated in the latest community service trips to Lesotho in May and June 2009. Led by Associate Professor of History Scott Rosenberg, participants assisted local communities through personal interaction and the expansion of community resources, including construction of a community center, erecting playground equipment for a preschool and painting classrooms at a school for orphans.

In addition to their community service activities, trip participants interacted with children in an HIV clinic to see first-hand effects of the devastating disease that afflicts 24-30 percent of the population of Lesotho.

Emily Ellermann, class of 2010 from Littleton, Colo., and Becca Zajac, class of 2011 from Livonia, Mich., are working as interns in the Wittenberg Center for Applied Management (WittCAM). They are spearheading the Witt-In-Africa Project, which has been working to raise money for a 2011 trip to Lesotho, the site of Wittenberg community service projects in four of the last six years.

Written by: Ryan Maurer
Photo by: Erin Pence

009-10