When the Toronto Blue Jays made their long-awaited return to the World Series, twenty Durham College Sports Management students found themselves part of a major moment in both sports and community impact.
The students were selected to contribute to the ‘MLB + Stand Up To Cancer’ (SU2C) tribute for Game 2 on Oct. 25, helping to deliver one of the World Series’ most powerful and emotional traditions.
“The event itself is a pretty prominent event,” said Sports Management professor Matt Akler.
He explained the partnership is between Major League Baseball, based in New York, and Stand Up To Cancer, a national charity started by people in the entertainment industry in California.
During one inning break of the World Series all players on the field, all umpires, broadcasters and fans hold a small card that says “Stand up to cancer for ___.”
“Then they fill in the blank, whether it’s for a generic group of people like patients or cancer survivors, or a particular individual,” he said, “because cancer’s touched all of us.”
Students were responsible for installing placards and supporting the in-game activity.
“They were responsible for being there bright and early in the morning, putting those cards in every single seat in the stadium,” Akler said. “And then staffing tables once fans started coming in to get them to write their message on the cards and maybe make a donation to the charity.”
For Gail Cohen, a Sports Business Management student, the experience was unforgettable.
“It was very emotional sometimes with some of the people who came to the tables,” she said. “One gentleman I spoke to had just lost his wife the week before, and it was very emotional for him to write her name and to have her memory that way.”
Cohen said the experience offered valuable insight into the industry.
“It gave us a real, firsthand understanding, some real-life experience of the stuff that we’re learning in our courses,” she said. “It was a really kind of once-in-a-lifetime experience to get to go to the World Series.”
Akler said organizers praised the students for their professionalism, saying they represented Durham College, themselves and Canada “very well.”
“We open a lot of doors for them,” he added, “but it’s up to them to step through and take advantage of those opportunities. And this was a unique and special one.”
As the stadium filled with thousands of fans holding cards in tribute to loved ones, Durham College students stood among them, tired but proud.