Waking up early on a Friday morning wasn’t the first thing on Patrick Macon’s mind, but he knew he had an important task at hand that day. That task was participating in the Day of Champions, a community service event in Yuma, hosted by Arizona Western College.

Macon, a sophomore football player and players from the many AWC sports teams were participants of the event last year, which brings the many athletes to various locations across Yuma to perform community service.

“The Day of Champions was a good experience,” said Macon. “The community supports us by coming to our games and stuff, so being able to give back to them is a good feeling.”

The event had the athletes doing many things for the community, such as planting trees, spreading sand on horse corrals and sorting bottles and cans at the recycling plant.

“It was hard labor,” Macon said. “I was out there sweating, but I know it was for a good cause.”

Community service generally isn’t easy, and it involved many hours in most cases, but the work is necessary to help communities thrive and gives and instant impact.

“I’ve never participated in volunteer work before, but it gave me a look on the lives of some workers,” Macon said. “It taught me how workers feel on a day-to-day basis, and people forget that tasks in community service can actually be somebody’s job.

“Some people do things that we would consider community service for a living, and I feel like sometimes we don’t show enough appreciation.”

This year the AWC Men’s Soccer team participated in the Day of Champions. They went to the Crossroads Mission Thrift Store and helped out with many tasks, such as cleaning up garbage.

This will not be the only attempt of community service by an AWC team, however. This year the Day of Champions has been split up over many weekends, which allows the AWC teams to help the community on multiple occasions.

“I know the impact community service has on communities and my experience last year was great,” Macon said. “I can’t wait to be able to help some more.”

Photo courtesy of AWC Sports Information Services