December 9, 2005
We all saw and heard the heart-wrenching images and stories of distress and loss due to an overwhelming hurricane season.
In our lifetime, the United States has not endured this magnitude of devastation.
In the first few hours following Hurricane Katrina, the Temple University Ambler community began to collect money for the Red Cross to aid in the relief efforts. Suzanne Henderson, Graduate Extern in the Office of Student Life, walked from office to office and canvassed the campus asking students, faculty, and staff to give what they could and people were eager to help. In just a few short days, Suzanne collected $740.
Other efforts soon followed. Sigma Chi Delta, the Criminal Justice Society, and the American Marketing Association, through two relief drives, collected hundreds of dollars and literal truckloads of clothing, food, and basic necessities for the victims in the Gulf Coast Region. The Parable pulled people out of the comfort zone and put them on stage, raising additional funds for hurricane victims.
And they weren’t alone. Throughout the semester, Temple University Ambler’s student organizations have found new and innovative ways to bring attention to and collect donations for a wide variety of important causes.
For Beta Alpha Psi, it was a volleyball tournament, which raised over $1,200 for the United Way. For the Pi Phi Sorority, it was a Share the Harvest fresh produce drive and the third annual Mr. Hooter Pageant, co-sponsored by the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, which this year raised money for Habitat for Humanity.
The Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority held a special concert to raise awareness of domestic abuse issues while a campus-wide turkey drive — supported in large part by a generous donation of $200 from the Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Student Association — helped the Mattie Dixon Community Cupboard in Ambler Borough feed 50 additional families this Thanksgiving.
Ambler’s Panhellenic organizations also pooled their resources to ensure that the holiday wishes of three area families would come true.
Throughout the semester, Owl Reach, a student organization dedicated to community service pooled their resources with new student organization Jubilee to help needy individuals in Philadelphia and a child overseas. With Sigma Chi Delta, they held a special Senior Citizen Halloween Dance and brought holiday cheer to well over a hundred children with a campus “Angel Tree” drive, collecting gifts for the Salvation Army. Sigma Chi Delta also sent letters to troops overseas during their annual Salute-A-Troop campaign.
From educational box top drives and doughnut sales for the Feed the Children Foundation sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management to book drives by the United Voices of Praise and Pi Phi; from toy drives by the Criminal Justice Society to a Student Government Association-sponsored meal for the children of St. Mary’s Villa in Ambler; from a non-perishable food drive sponsored by Ambler’s Owl Ambassadors to a Pi Phi “Spa Day” for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Ambler’s students found news to raise literally thousands of dollars in goods and funding to support extremely important causes.
The semester was capped off by an all together different sort of charity event. Spearheaded by Student Government Vice President of Academic Affairs Jennifer Shields, students from a variety of campus organizations and cultural backgrounds staged a play that not only shared information about global holiday traditions but also raised hundreds of dollars for Temple Children’s Hospital.
During this season when so many cultures celebrate with family and loved ones, faculty and staff need look no further then the students at Temple University Ambler to see what this season is truly all about. Congratulations to all of their efforts and their dedication to helping others.
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