By: Rhiannon Walker
At Arbor Acres Retirement Facility (N.C.), Adreené Elliot connected with Mrs. Fitzgerald.
Mrs. Fitzgerald’s husband had died years before, her children weren’t able to visit her frequently, and occasionally, Mrs. Fitzgerald didn’t remember Elliot because of her dementia, which was slowly degrading into Alzheimer’s.
They both worked through that though, and over the course of Elliott’s weekly visits she was able to make Mrs. Fitzgerald feel special, while Mrs. Fitzgerald was able to leave a lasting impression on the teenager.
“It just reminded me that everybody really wants to be loved and is made to feel like they’re important to somebody,” Elliot said. “I did feel bad that she felt forgotten and even that she didn’t remember me all the time. When I was in her presence, she felt joy. I want to give that feeling to anyone I can.”
Time; that’s a luxury Elliott doesn’t have much of.
Between her intense, and occasionally hectic, volleyball practices, travel and game schedules and her academic workload, there are few days where Elliott has free time.
However, with strong organizational skills and through strict time management, Elliott is always able to make time to serve the community.
“You make time for things that you know are really important to you,” Elliot said. “And because I feel like my spiritual purpose is to serve as much as I can and to give my life to others while I’m here on this Earth, I make sure that I get my work done when it needs to get done, and I make sure I still dedicate myself fully to volleyball.
“When I have a free weekend, and I’ve completed all my work, I do try to designate it to community service.”
The middle blocker for the Terps has spent time working with girls from the Takoma Academy, a private school in Takoma Park. The girls attended a few volleyball games and that’s where Elliot got to know them.
After reaching out to the girls, Elliot invited them to campus to explore the school, to go to classes with her for a day, and talked to the girls about what college is like. Elliot said she also played volleyball with them on a couple of occasions at Maryland.
The Takoma Academy girls were kind of surprised that she was giving them her number and contact information, Elliot said. But she explained that she was serious about being a resource for the girls and she just wanted to be of help in any way she could, whether it was talking about athletics, academics or spirituality.
“I feel like God’s purpose for me being here and having the opportunity to play as an athlete is to really inspire young girls to shoot for whatever they want to be,” Elliot said, “and be great, and go hard at it and live with passion.
“I’d like to think that I’ve made a difference in their lives inspirationally.”
In conjunction with her work at Takoma Academy, Elliot has also spent time mentoring little girls from different local schools and has stayed in contact with them by connecting on Facebook and giving the girls her cell phone number.
She worked at Independent Court, a retirement facility in Hyattsville, and said she enjoys working with the elderly because it provides an opportunity for her to learn from them and is another chance for her to serve the community.
On campus, Elliot serves as the secretary and treasurer of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, which will be hosting a Special Olympics basketball tournament in November.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams will go through different basketball drills with the kids, but the whole point of the event is to celebrate the children and make them feel like all-stars.
“We’re going to make the kids feel like they’re absolute celebrities,” Elliot said. “It’s really just to celebrate them and make them feel really special.”
In the short term, Elliot and other athletes on campus are getting more involved in community service to show the rest of the student athletes at Maryland there is always time for volunteering.
Helping to change the perception of college athletes is just one step closer to Elliot’s greatest goal of going on a mission trip to an impoverished country.
Her future career ambitions are to help develop an underdeveloped country. Something she says will begin with a trip where she has immersed herself in the culture to then begin to understand how she can help.
“I want to experience what they’re going through and how they live every day, so I can get a greater appreciation of what I have,” Elliot said. “I feel like I’m a very grateful person, but until you experience extreme poverty, I don’t think you really do have a full understanding of how good you have it.”
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