WEST BABYLON, N.Y. – The Roberts Wesleyan athletic department has been named the ECC Cares Award recipient for raising the most money per student-athlete for collective causes.

Redhawks’ teams raised $18,512 for charitable causes this year, good for a total of $45.26 per student-athlete.

Roberts Wesleyan’s top fundraising effort was the Ugandan Water Project, through which 335 participating student-athletes fundraised $12,361. RWU selected the Ugandan Water Project as part of a yearlong initiative to build at least three water wells in Uganda to provide fresh water to communities in need. For their efforts, Roberts Wesleyan won the NCAA 2024 Division II Award of Excellence, an accolade recognizing initiatives in the past year that exemplify the Division II philosophy, community engagement and student-athlete leadership, back in January.

Additional top fundraising efforts included SAAC’s Pirate Toy Fund, the Athletics Department’s Golisano Children’s Hospital Basketball Doubleheader, the Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving programs’ Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, and the Men’s and Women’s Volleyball programs’ Pepper for Pirate Fundraiser. 

The award comes with a $500 grant from the ECC to be used towards community efforts during the 2024-25 season.