FGCU’s Softball team will help build three homes this weekend in Lehigh Acres in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties. The team works on Habitat projects multiple times a year.
Head Coach David Deiros has maintained a relationship with the organization for 15 years. Miguel Fernandez, a late Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry County board member and father of a FGCU Softball alumni encouraged the team to help back in 2009.
Deiros says the service is rewarding and character-building for the players.
“It helps them in the grind of being able to graduate on time, it helps them be a great teammate and win, because the hardship of putting up a wall is a heck of a lot harder than facing a 65 mile per hour fastball,” Deiros said. “They are students, they are athletes, they are strong individuals.”
For players that have been on the team for multiple years, they have worked on multiple projects each. Tiffany Meek, a junior on the team, takes pride in the collaboration. Her favorite moment of the service occurred when the homeowner of a house the team worked on threw the first pitch at an FGCU Softball game.
“It’s a really gratifying feeling of putting the walls up of a house, and then just seeing that house built, and seeing the family move in,” Meek said. “It’s just so amazing.”
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