SPENCER BIERSCHWALE OF TEXAS LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY, a sophomore on the Bulldogs' track & field team, has been selected the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Character and Community Male Student Athlete of the Week for the week beginning October 16, 2017.
The SCAC honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.
Recently, a good portion of Bierschwale’s out-of-classroom and off-the-track efforts have been focused on Hurricane Harvey relief, particularly in the towns of Rockport, Texas and Aransas Pass, Texas.
Together with teammates on the TLU Men’s Track & Field Team and with members of the TLU Women’s Track & Field Team, Bierschwale assisted with fund-raising for supplies and then helped deliver those supplies to the storm-ravaged areas.
“My friends and I just decided to start raising money with things that we could get down there,” said Bierschwale. “We have some other friends from the Rockport area, and we started going around to businesses in Seguin and New Braunfels, and started calling friends and family from back home to donate to our cause.”
“And then Coach (Darlene) Holland and Coach Clay (Holland) cleaned out the track storage room, and they donated about $9,000 worth of track equipment to Rockport-Fulton High School. At the end of our service down there, we added up the donations and the goods that people had donated, and food and everything that was donated, and it was around $25,000.”
Bierschwale says a group of 15 volunteers helped raised money for the relief project on which he worked. Of those 15, seven went down to the Rockport area to deliver the supplies. The relief convoy from Seguin included a trailer, two truck loads and a Suburban full of goods to distribute.
“We would stop off at a shelter, and they would have no baby formula,” said Bierschwale of the trip to Aransas Pass and Rockport. “We had baby formula, but they didn’t need any diapers. We would drop off all the baby formula they would take, and then we would go to the next tent, the next parking lot or the next shelter. We would drop off whatever they would take, and we would drop off all the diapers there.”
“We had clothes and donations that one of our friends from New Braunfels got together from her church group, and we took that all to a shelter. Whatever they would accept, we would drop off and them move onto the next shelter.”
Once the delivery of relief items occurred, Bierschwale says the group still had about $3,000 in donation money to distribute.
“We donated about a $1,000 of each of that (remaining donation money) to a shelter in Houston, and then to one in Refugio and then one in Rockport,” said Bierschwale.
A Dramatic Media major, Bierschwale is an all-conference performer for the TLU Men’s Track & Field Team. Last season, he competed in the 110 and 400-meter hurdles, finishing fifth and third, respectively, in the 2017 SCAC Championships.
Bierschwale was a member of the Bulldogs’ 2017 SCAC Men’s Track & Field conference championship squad.
When not organizing and assisting with disaster relief or clearing hurdles on the track, Bierschwale serves as a sophomore senator in the TLU Student Government Association.
Bierschwale also has worked as a crew member, for sound and lighting, on student productions for TLU Dramatic Media. And he assists with box office and marketing committee operations for TLU Dramatic Media.