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Passion-based learning is central to Senior Independent Projects (SIP) at Trinity-Pawling. From start to finish, the SIP process encourages students to be curious, ambitious, and creative as they pursue a personal interest or passion. Matt Dow \u201919 and Connor McKay \u201919 did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For their SIPs this year, Dow and McKay worked together to organize and host a Spike Ball tournament to benefit Matthew\u2019s Hearts of Hope (MHOH). Founded by Marie Hatcher, Matthew\u2019s mom, the mission of MHOH is to raise awareness of the number one birth defect in children: congenital heart defects (CHD). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MHOH organization \u2013 and the family behind it \u2013 both hold a special place in Dow\u2019s heart. \u201cAbout four years ago, my sister was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease,\u201d explained Dow. \u201cAfter one of her surgeries, Matthew Hatcher (of MHOH) was in the next room over. He and my sister soon became friends and my family stayed closely connected to the Hatchers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marie and Matthew Hatcher visited campus in the fall to share a presentation with the Trinity-Pawling community about congenital heart diseases. Raising awareness of CHD, however, did not stop there for Dow and McKay. \u201cMany people don\u2019t understand how serious CHD can be in young children,\u201d Dow shared. \u201cWe knew that hosting a Spike Ball tournament would bring a lot of people together for the cause and help them gain a better understanding of CHD and Matthew\u2019s organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The logistics of organizing the tournament presented a few challenges to the duo along the way, but with determination and some faculty guidance, they found success. The Spike Ball tournament was held on Friday, January 25th in the Smith Field House. \u201cIt ended up being a 20-team tournament with 2 players on each team,\u201d shared McKay. \u201cIt was a great turnout.\u201d With team registration fees and donations throughout the event, Dow and McKay raised over $250 for Matthew\u2019s Hearts of Hope. Even better \u2013 they played Spike Ball alongside Matthew Hatcher himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe tournament was very successful and everybody had a great time,\u201d Dow concluded. \u201cWe\u2019d like to thank everyone who participated and helped make it happen. It means so much!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Emma Christiantelli<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Passion-based learning is central to Senior Independent Projects (SIP) at Trinity-Pawling. From start to finish, the SIP process encourages students to be curious, ambitious, and creative as they pursue a personal interest or passion. Matt Dow \u201919 and Connor McKay \u201919 did just that. For their SIPs this year, Dow and McKay worked together to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-february-2019"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"Matthew Dow \u201919 and Conor McKay \u201919","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2632"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2680,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions\/2680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}