A group of MU athletes gathered Saturday to promote strong character among Columbia youth.

The event, a joint effort between the MU athletics department and community organization The Intersection, gave the children a chance to play with and learn from various student-athletes representing the football, men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and track teams.

“For the kids in our neighborhood, it’s kind of hard to get out to the events that they throw at the Athletic Center,” Intersection Development Director George Thomas said. “If we brought it here than more kids would have access to it.”

As both an MU receiver and an Intersection volunteer, senior Terry Dennis was able to merge the two programs.

“If I ever saw an athlete I wouldn’t care if they were famous,” he said. “I wouldn’t care if they were low (on the depth chart). If they just had a Mizzou patch that would be enough to make my entire week.”

Because of this, he said he felt it was important to bring people that the children could see as role models in order to have fun and learn.

“I wanted to make their day just a little better while incorporating some of the things Intersection stands for,” he said.

To begin, the children and athletes mixed into two teams for a few games of capture the flag. Junior sprinter Sierra Gant used her speed to chase down intruders, and senior receiver Jerrell Jackson and junior linebacker Zaviar Gooden used their size to set screens for the children as they made off with the flag.

Before the event took a more serious tone, participants also played the spoke game, in which each child lined up in a circle around a ball with two athletes behind. Each row was assigned a number, and when theirs was called they’d run around the circle before leap-frogging their team to get to the center. The first to do so and retrieve the ball would be the winner.

The game was meant to teach teamwork, but also demonstrated the difficulties of a 7-year old hopping over a near-seven footer in senior center Steve Moore.

Sitting in a circle, the children and athletes next focused on the idea of respect. After the participants shared the people in their lives whom they respected, Dennis spoke on the importance of the ideal.

“We feel like we were at your age just yesterday,” Dennis said to the children. “We went through what you do. Respect is what gets you help.”

The Intersection was founded in 2003 to produce responsible members of society by teaching children responsibility, restraint caring, integrity and honesty – ideals that are literally painted on the walls of the organization.

The camp was the first collaboration between the MU athletics department and the Intersection. Despite a smaller than expected turnout, Dennis remains hopeful that this will be the first of many events held by the two.

“(It’s) something that I really, really want to keep doing because I think these kids, in seeing someone in a position like that, they’ll get a lot more than just sitting in a classroom,” he said.

The kids are in agreement, wanting to see the event continue. As the camp wound down, Jaylen Johnson said beaming, “It was awesome.”