BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Director of Communications Ed Haas tops the 2019-20 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Volunteer 15 Initiative List for volunteer/community service hours.
Volunteer 15 is an initiative launched in 2014-15 to get CoSIDA members more involved in their communities. CoSIDA members promote the great civic works done by their athletics teams but there is no promotion, or very little, about CoSIDA members doing community service either with these teams or independently. CoSIDA members are encouraged to volunteer at least 15 hours of community service each academic year.
Haas tops the list for the third time – and the second time in as many years – with 1,740 hours. Previously, he led the 2016-17 list with 1,210 hours and the 2018-19 list with 1,696 hours.
Outside the office, he serves as a member of the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee, West Sadsbury Township (Pa.) Planning Commission and participated on the Western Chester County (Pa.) Regional Fire Department Committee which consolidated three companies into the Keystone Valley Fire Department. The fire effort marked one of the first times in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania history that three companies were consolidated for improved response time and service. In March 2015, Haas was appointed to the three-member West Sadsbury Township Board of Supervisors, the Keystone Valley Fire District Board and was elected Vice-Chairman of both the Board of Supervisors and Fire District Board in April of 2015. He was reelected to another six-year term on the West Sadsbury Township Board of Supervisors in the Fall of 2017 and was elected Chairman of both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors in January 2020.
Among the top eight individuals in 2019-20, Haas (1,740) was the lone individual to crack 1,000 hours as Eric McDowell of Sage Colleges (740 hours), Paul Smith of Texas Women’s University (520 hours), Ira Thor of New Jersey City University (499 hours), Greg Pellegrino of Holy Family University (260 hours), Sam Atkinson of Gallaudet University (210 hours), Blake Timm of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (209 hours) and Doug Hauschild of the University of Dayton (200 hours) account for the remainder of the Top Eight.
Overall, the number of participants and volunteer hours for the Volunteer 15 program increased for the sixth consecutive year. In the 2019-20 academic year, an impressive 136 members logged 10,252 hours in their communities and on their campuses nationwide.
Volunteer 15 participants served their communities as tutors, mentors, coaches, ambassadors, humane society advocates, working with Special Olympics and missionaries, to name a few, aside from their day-to-day duties as strategic communicators for college athletics.
