Students gathered to participate in a volleyball tournament for charity at the Smith Center Thursday evening.

The Martin Luther King Volleyball Tournament, sponsored by the Residence Hall Association, was created to collect clothing donations for Miriam’s Kitchen.

The 13 teams that entered the competition were required to donate an article of clothing for each member playing.

The teams included the Lafayette Nerds and the Bold Brainers, reflecting the fun nature of the tournament.

The Somers Hall Wonder Women, a team from the Mount Vernon campus, sported T-shirts with pictures of the cartoon figure Wonder Woman on the back.

Rebekah Brockway, a member of the Somers Hall Wonder Women, said the tournament was a great way to have fun and raise donations for the less fortunate.

Brockway said with a laugh, we’re going to get creamed, but it’s for a good cause.

Freshman Jessica Glantz came to support the team from the Hall on Virginia Avenue.

We just have a really together floor – we wanted to have fun and give stuff to charity, Glantz said.

Team Redi-Whip won the tournament, team ROATKA took second place and the Ultimate Hippos came in third.

Kelly Snyder, the Community Service chair for RHA and the organizer of the tournament, said the event’s turnout and students’ enthusiasm for the tournament impressed her.

The student response was great, and we were really pleased with the turnout, Snyder said. It was great to have 13 teams come out to play and donate clothing for the needy in our community.

Snyder said most teams brought more clothing donations than the required amount to enter the tournament. She said one team from Mount Vernon came with a car trunk full of items to donate. Spectators and those who could not participate in the event also donated items, Snyder said. She said a total of 297 articles of clothing were collected to donate to Miriam’s Kitchen.

It was truly a delight to see students and staff care about our community, Snyder said.