Quick Lane Bowl: Chippewas Pitch In
12/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
DETROIT - Round 2 goes to Central Michigan, and they're all even headed into the contest that really counts.
The Chippewa football players, coaches and support personnel loaded 18,000 pounds of potatoes and stuffed 1,400 backpacks with foodstuffs Saturday at Gleaners Food Bank on the city's east side as part of Quick Lane Bowl activities.
The Minnesota contingent's tally: 17,000 pounds of potatoes, 1,300 backpacks. CMU's "victory" evened up the competitions between the Quick Lane Bowl teams. Minnesota won a fowling -- a football/bowling hybrid game -- competition on Friday night.
The Chippewas (7-5) and Golden Gophers (5-7) will meet Monday at Ford Field (5 p.m.) in the Quick Lane Bowl.
"We're really enjoying it, having fun with it," said CMU senior defensive end Blake Serpa. "It's great to give back, especially with the amount of people (in the program) who are from this city. It's personal to them. We're very fortunate, and it's nice to give back."
The Chippewas were scheduled to attend the official bowl-game welcome dinner on Saturday night and then tour the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. On Sunday, the Chippewas are slated to watch the Detroit Lions-San Francisco 49ers game at Ford Field.
On Saturday, the CMU traveling party - five tour buses strong - went to Gleaners' 90,000 square-foot warehouse. The players were tasked with bagging potatoes, while others - coaches, administrators, support staff - filled backpacks for school children.
For nearly four decades, Gleaners has helped feed the needy in the Detroit area. The operation includes four satellite locations in suburban Detroit. It handles more than 34 million pounds of food per year, according to Chief Operations Officer Julie Beamer.
Gleaners' president, Jerry Brisson, is the father of CMU defensive lineman Nate Brisson-Fast. Gleaners works with some 500 agencies, such as shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries, to distribute the food.
"I have a lot of family who live in Detroit, so if I can help them out in any way that I can," said CMU senior middle linebacker and captain Tim Hamilton, who hails from suburban Southfield. "It's just great being here. We're having a lot of fun with this too. Anyway we can help, we will."
