Photo Gallery: Canes Day of Giving

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The morning after earning a crucial conference road win at Virginia Tech, several members of the Hurricanes football team found themselves facing a different kind of challenge: trying to pick out the ingredients for a perfect Thanksgiving dinner.

There were passionate discussions about which type of pie makes for a better dessert, or what kind of gravy would better complement turkey and mashed potatoes.

The reason for those discussions? On Sunday, the Hurricanes hosted their fifth annual Canes Day of Giving event, which begins with student-athletes shopping to fill meal boxes that are later put together and given to families from the Miami-Dade County Foster and Adoptive Parent Association during an afternoon of fun and games inside the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility.

More than 65 Hurricanes participated in the event, along with some of Miami’s partners from City National Bank.

“We’re very blessed and very grateful we can be here for you guys,” Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. told the families before the Hurricanes spent the afternoon teaching youngsters how to throw footballs, run blocking drills and play board games. “Make yourselves at home, and we’ll make ourselves available to you … ask us anything you want, we’re here for you.”

It was a day both the Hurricanes, and the families they spent time with, won’t forget.

“It’s such a blessing, not just for the turkeys and food, but for the camaraderie between the players and the kids, and then the parents get to relive their childhoods just coming in here,” said Shamele Jenkins, the executive director of the Miami-Dade County Foster and Adoptive Parent Association. “To see compassion, nothing can take the price of that. … Not having to cook, or having to shop, knowing that someone has provided the items for you so you can just put them in a pot and cook, that is a break. … There’s no greater joy than that. It saves them time. And then to know that young men that you don’t even know went shopping for you, that’s a win-win situation. We’re just in love with the University of Miami.”