Quote of the Week

"To Look Forward and Not Back, To Look Out and Not In, and To Lend a Helping Hand"-Edward Everett Hale

Community service along with a passion for philanthropy have always been a big part of my life. Starting young in middle school and high school with service clubs, volunteering outside of school with my church and my community theatre, then continuing on my path of service in college. The non-profit that my service focus has stayed with through my years at Mizzou is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As a Chi Omega, this is our national philanthropy and each year my chapter raises over $15,000 through a series of events on and off campus. These events include a ice cream social at Cold Stone Creamery, a volleyball tournament, a trivia night, and generous donations from family and peers. Money that we raise goes to local Make-A-Wish chapters to grant the wishes of children in and around the Columbia area. Over the years we have sent two children to Disneyworld, thrown a few birthday bashes and even turned one little girl into Hannah Montana for a day. This work with children has been extremely fulfilling and heartwarming. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, their message and their actions have left quite an amazing impression on me and I will continue to serve with them when I graduate. Serving kids is something that has always been close to my heart and I look forward to continuing my work in the wish-granting process with this organization.

Besides my work with Make-A-Wish, over the past month my own focus along with a majority of the community across our nation has focused on help for Haiti. After the devastation of the earthquake just weeks ago, the Columbia community as well as communities across the United States have come together to raise money for Haiti relief. The response has been overwhelming. The Columbia community alone has already raised over $32,000 for the American Red Cross alone, along with many other local organizations that have sent money, supplies, doctors and aid. Two of my good friends planned and organized a benefit concert called Hear For Haiti. One the of local music venues downtown donated the space for free as well as many different restaurants and other businesses have donated raffle prizes and free food for the event. The support is overwhelming. Just by going door to door asking for help for Haiti, not one business turned us down. A local t-shirt company also agreed to make and sell shirts promoting the event, donating all t-shirt sales to the Hear for Haiti fund. I have been part of the communications team, spreading the word about the t-shirts and the concert to make sure we have a huge crowd for the big event. Tickets are $10 and all of the money from these as well as the money from raffle tickets and t-shirt sales will be donated to Haiti relief. I have helped with getting the message out on KOMU. We have done a live interview with one of my friends who started the concert idea as well as mentioned the concert during our coverage of other Haiti fundraisers. It is so fulfilling to see how my friends and I can start such a huge project in only a few weeks with so much community support. Tickets are selling out fast and with all of the publicity and donations, the concert is sure to be a success. Help for Haiti has really put many people's lives into perspective and has allowed definitely allowed me to step back and appreciate how privileged and fortunate I am. To see every person that I know so willing to help and support the cause is very exciting and I am proud to be part of such a giving community here in Columbia. Through my stories at KOMU to raise awareness of how the community is helping, along with my own contributions to the relief effort, Haiti has really connected the world on a new level of service and I hope this passion for helping others remains.