LA MIRADA --- As a part of the southern Los Angeles area, Biola Athletics is committed to its local community. The love of Jesus permeates through the student-athletes and into the area on and around the campus of Biola. Your gifts during Biola's Athletics Week of Giving will help make these projects for each program even more possible.

Every team at Biola plays a part with mission trips and service projects in the nearby and far out communities. The Eagles look to make an impact for Christ throughout the year, serving others with joy.

The BU men's water polo squad is a prime example of thriving in the community. Over the past two years, the team has participated in two Los Angeles food bank drives! 

"We as a team were honored with the task of forming service boxes full of canned goods and other nutritional items." said sophomore Luke Franklin. "These boxes would be distributed to families in need all around the Los Angeles area."

Through just one food drive, the men's and women's water polo squads helped with enough boxes to go out to upwards of 4,000 families. 

"As a Biola MWP team, we not only desire to compete at the highest level, develop our student athletes, pour into their spiritual growth, but to also serve our community and the surrounding areas," commented head coach Rick Nordell. 

The team has also been involved with Love La Mirada and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Love La Mirada is, "an organization dedicated to helping people discover more about our city, serve together to improve our neighborhoods, and connect with other residents of La Mirada into a greater community". For the Veterans of Foreign Wars, BU helped them clean out a storage area and move equipment and supplies to another storage unit. They also helped them clean up from some rain damage that had recently occurred.

Nordell loves what these service projects mean to his team and to the community they are able to impact. "There is no better way to build relationships, than to serve alongside each other. Having opportunities to serve together, gives us those opportunities to build relationships and friendships that go well beyond just teammates. It also gives our student athletes an opportunity to give back to our local community which will hopefully create in each one of them an intrinsic lifestyle of serving others."

Thriving in community is crucial to the fabric of Biola Athletics and we thank you for your support during Athletics Week of Giving!