Last week, an array of student organizations held events focused on giving. Thanksgiving is steadfastly approaching, and we visited two student-led initiatives that partook in the spirit of giving: HerCampus and Social Work Club (SWC). Her Campus held a winter clothing drive, and Social Work Club had a canned food drive.
Winter Clothing Donation With Her Campus
Her Campus is an online magazine written by college women. Beyond being a nationally recognized organization, it has chapters in over 11 countries. WCU’s chapter is one of them, and you can read WCU’s Her Campus online magazine here. On November 20, they hosted a winter clothing drive in Sykes Student Union. People could drop by their table and donate winter clothes they were no longer using.
We visited them during the first hour of their event, and they already had two impressively full bins of clothing ready to be donated to those in need. Those who donated received a goodie bag decorated and put together by WCU’s Her Campus team. They also had mini versions of their online magazine to give away, aptly named ‘little zines’.
Shannon Byrnes, treasurer and chapter editor of Her Campus, said this was the first clothing drive held by their organization. “We try to have at least one big event per semester, and we wanted to give back to the community,” Byrnes says, showing off the ‘little zines’ they had put together for the event.
“We’ve had other events similar to this, like our book swap event, but this is the first ever clothing drive we’ve held,” Byrnes continued.
“’Tis the season, so why not?” President Megan Magee said, “and we’d love to hold another clothing drive next year as well.”
If you didn’t have time to stop by their event and would like to donate some of your old winter clothes, contact Her Campus via their Instagram @hcatwestchester.
Food Drive with Social Work Club
WCU’s Social Work Club (SWC) hosted their canned food drive on November 20th in the social work students very own lounge on the fourth floor in Anderson Hall. SWC is a student organization dedicated to helping the local community and provide a positive social work message. This is not SWC’s first food drive, and President Mia Parker says they collaborate with the resource pantry on campus.
“All of the donations we receive today goes to the resource pantry here at WCU,” Parker says. “We’ve held other food drives as well, just last Wednesday we had a food drive where we also had pizza for those who came by.”
In addition to food drives, Parker tells us that SWC wants to collaborate closer with “Nelson’s Playground” in the future, an NGO helping those in need.
“Now that the season is changing and it’s getting colder. We want to strengthen our collaboration with Nelson’s Playground and give back to the community. And we’re going to continue holding events similar to this, of course,” Parker says.
SWC aspires to create a community for both social work students, and those interested in the field. Its open for any student on campus. “We have a lot of students who minor in social studies that come to our events. It’s a great place to meet and chat with other social work majors on campus,” Parker concludes.
Secretary of the club, Riley Lebofski and treasurer Emily Dunn nods along. They say the club provides a good space for students interested in social work. Especially if you haven’t declared a major yet.
“It’s a good opportunity for underclassmen to meet and chat with upperclassmen, and connect,” Dunn points out. “Our events have great turnouts. It’s nice to provide a space for both the social worker students and other students to meet one another. It’s a small department, so community is important.”
While we were chatting, SWC’s advisor, Dr. Greg Tully, pops by to see how the event is going. Of course, Dr. Tully is part of the group photo.
If you didn’t get the chance to pop by and donate canned food, Parker says that people are more than welcome to stop by with their donation at the social workers lounge on the 4th floor of Anderson Hall at any time.
