Submitted Photo Members of the Minot State University Student-Athlete Advisory are shown with donations of winter clothing and food, collected during October for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center.

A month-long winter clothing and food drive led by the Minot State University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) brought in record donations for the Domestic Violence Crisis Center (DVCC) in October, filling a minivan with bags and bins gathered from every athletic team.

Mallory Hoogensen, a senior softball player from Ankeny, Iowa, and SAAC’s president, said the initiative grew from years of collaboration with the DVCC and the committee’s commitment to maintaining that partnership, even without a conference-level directive.

“In past years, SAAC has partnered with the DVCC to do similar service projects during the month of October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month,” she said. “The NSIC in the past has also had an initiative for domestic violence awareness, and although this is not a current conference initiative during the 2025-2026 academic year, our committee knew this was something that we wanted to do for this organization and our community.”

Hoogensen credited SAAC philanthropy officer Noah Iosefa, a senior football player from Holt, Michigan, with helping initiate the project.

“My biggest goal that I had when coordinating this event was creating motivation for our committee members as well as all the teams here at MSU so we can give back as much as possible to our community,” she said. “I motivated the teams to participate by creating a friendly competition to earn Beaver Cup points that go towards our biggest award handed out at BESPY’s, the Beaver Cup.”

Students worked closely with SAAC adviser and Faculty Athletic Representative Kristi Berg, MSU professor of computer information systems, to coordinate details.

Hoogensen acknowledged a challenge faced by many college students: asking them to part with items they may also need.

“I recognize that we are all college students and sometimes food, clothing, and other items such as these, we need them for ourselves,” she said. “I did highlight to my own team that I know that everyone has at least one sweatshirt or winter clothing item that they may not have used in a while, and that someone needs it more than we do.”