By Julia Bogdan
Doggie kissing booth at Carefest 2017.
On Tuesday, Sept. 19th, the Longwood University #COMMunity, including PRSSA, WMLU, The Rotunda and Lambda Pi Eta, came together to raise $700 (and still growing) for the victims of the recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida.
Carefest 2017 had raffles, a bake sale, puppy kissing booth, and jail a friend.
“I think the #COMMunity really just united around the idea of helping other people,” Halle Parker, senior, and editor-in-chief of The Rotunda said. “The Carefest was a culmination of what we’ve learned in our communication classes and a desire to help others.”
The #COMMunity has a history of reaching out to nonprofit organizations including their annual #RealCOMM Competition, where they raise money for local organizations.
“I think this was a great way to bring the Heart of Farmville down to Texas and Florida,” Parker said.
Student groups came up with the idea of an all-communication fundraiser at a Lambda Pi Eta meeting (the communications studies honor fraternity), when the advisor, Dr. Paal, brought up the idea of trying to do something to fundraise money within the department after hearing about the recent tragedies.
“The Longwood Communication Studies department tries to build a relationship with its majors and tries to promote the idea of citizen leaders,” Parker said.
“We have always had the #COMMunity, but this shows everyone that we really are just like one big family. We will all work together and pull together when we need to,” Emily Neighbors, President of PRSSA, said.
“We tried to evolve and get as many people in campus involved, so that’s where the dining services came in, Longwood athletics started promoting it within their department, the University decided to cover it, so it really just became a student-wide effort,” Parker said. “All the money made at the food truck went toward the cause.”
Emily Neighbors and Dr. Alec Hosterman are working together to send the money down to a university in Florida and one in Texas so they can choose local nonprofits to send it to.
Neighbors and Parker hope for the Carefest to become an annual celebration where they raise money for many different non-profit causes.
Jail a friend, including Dr. Hosterman and students Halle Parker and Miriam Loya