Philanthropies in the Pandemic
Emily O'Leary and Jade Marceau -- Mary
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on many, including philanthropy work done by Truman students. These are the stories of just a few philanthropy projects on campus that have been affected by the pandemic.
65 Roses Gala raises "comparable amounts" to past events despite changes
The 65 Roses Gala benefits one of Delta Phi Epsilon’s philanthropies, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The goal of the gala is to raise awareness and funding for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Julianne Amato, Vice President of Programming for Delta Phi Epsilon, was in charge of overseeing the annual 65 Roses Gala.
“We call it the 65 Roses Gala because when kids first get diagnosed with [Cystic Fibrosis], they learn how to pronounce it by saying 65 Roses,” Amato said.
The annual gala normally takes place during the spring semester. Due to the pandemic, the gala was canceled for the Spring 2020 semester.
“We didn’t have one in 2020 because it would have been in May and it was at the beginning of the pandemic, and no one really knew how to handle it,” Amato said.
The 2019 65 Roses Gala was in person at Jackson Stables. It was also in conjunction with the sorority’s Mom’s Weekend, so members could bring their moms to the event.
The gala in 2021 took place via Zoom and Facebook to decrease the amount of human contact due to the pandemic. There were baskets sold through a silent auction on the gala’s Facebook page, as well as two speakers on the Zoom. One of the speakers was a Delta Phi Epsilon alumnae who is a nurse, the other was a student from Kirksville High School who has Cystic Fibrosis.
Talking about the amounts raised between the 2019 and the 2021 galas, Amato said they raised “comparable amounts”.
“We raised $4800 in 2019, and we raised $4300 in 2021,” Amato said.
Amato said that for both galas, members raised money through CrowdChange, a virtual fundraising platform. Additionally, all money raised through the silent auction baskets also went to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
“Two differences that we did this year was that we sold t-shirts through the CrowdChange and there wasn’t an admission to go to the gala,” Amato said. “In the past, it was $10 to go because it was in person, but since it was online it was free.”
Amato said that shifting the gala online this year due to the pandemic did affect turnout.
“We had less people come because it was all online, so it was harder to get parents and friends to come because it was not necessarily a fun event to go sit in front of your computer,” Amato said. “I think attendance was low, and I think that was the biggest impact, because we want to reach a lot of people to spread awareness.”
A photo of a basket that was sold in the silent auction for the 65 Roses Gala this year. The silent auction was shifted online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy 65 Roses Gala Facebook page.
A section of an interview with Julianne Amato, VP of Programming for Delta Phi Epsilon. She discusses the background of the event and the differences of the gala pre and post pandemic.
Habitat for Humanity cuts trip short due to pandemic
Megan Nesbitt, President of the Truman Habitat for Humanity club, talks about her experiences with the club and how the organization had been affected by the pandemic.
When the pandemic was intensifying in March 2020, the Habitat for Humanity club at Truman had to cut their building trip short at the request of the university.
Habitat for Humanity is a national non-profit program where volunteers can go help a homeowner build their house. The Habitat for Humanity group on campus normally takes trips during breaks to build houses outside of Kirksville.
Megan Nesbitt, President of the Habitat for Humanity organization on campus, was on a building trip in Colorado in March 2020 when the trip was cut short due to the pandemic.
When planning the trip in February, Nesbitt said they joked about the virus coming into the United States.
“It was just like ‘oh, there’s a disease in the U.S., but we’re not going to get it’, and there had been no cases in Colorado so we felt pretty safe,” Nesbitt said. “Then leading up to the trip, around the beginning of March, we were like ‘oh, we need to take this seriously’.”
Nesbitt said the recommendation to wear masks was not in place when they had gone on the trip.
The Truman Habitat for Humanity club at the end of their March 2020 build trip. Nesbitt says that it is possible that they wouldn't be able to build again until summer 2022. Photo courtesy of the Truman Habitat for Humanity Intsagram page.
“We didn’t have masks on, but we sanitized a lot,” Nesbitt said. “We didn’t really go out anywhere and we kept our distance.”
Nesbitt said that about halfway through the trip, the organization was told to head back home.
“We received an email from Sue Thomas telling us to get home now.because there was a national epidemic, it was hitting pretty hard, it was getting worse, and they didn’t want any Truman organizations or anyone sponsored by Truman out and about and spreading this disease,” Nesbitt said.
After receiving President Thomas’ email, Nesbitt said that the organization cut the trip a day short and came home early.
“It was very unprecedented,” Nesbitt said. “I remember driving home from Colorado...we were listening to the first press conference that Trump had.”
Nesbitt helping build a house during the March 2020 build trip. Photo courtesy of the Truman Habitat for Humanity Instagram page.
The current pandemic has also hindered future prospects with home building projects. According to Nesbitt, future projects for Habitat for Humanity won’t occur for a long time.
“Not as many people want us coming to their house,” Nesbitt said, adding that they do a lot of home repairs and wheelchair accessibility additions when they are not building houses.
Nesbitt said that the non-profit organization as a whole were not sponsoring any building projects as of yet.
“It’s very unfortunate because with the pandemic, homelessness has gone up a little bit due to losing jobs,” Nesbitt said. “There is a bit of a demand for Habitat for Humanity to come build houses now, but there’s not a supply because no one is doing it.”
Projects in the Kirksville area may happen in the near future. Nesbitt said that the Kirksville chapter of Habitat for Humanity has started raising funds again for future house constructions, and said they might start builds again in the summer of 2022.
“I’ll be graduated [by then], but I hope I taught my club enough and there are some experienced people in the club that they can continue the club and that they can go out and continue to build,” Nesbitt said.
The Big Event cuts publicity, volunteer sites for 2021 event
As a precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 throughout the Kirksville community, the coordinators behind the Big Event cut down on publicity and volunteer sites this year.
The Big Event is an annual event, and is “chance for students to get involved with the community”. Members of the Kirksville community reach out to the Serve Center requesting assistance on the Big Event, and students will go help members with those tasks. Tasks range from cleaning windows to raking leaves.
Lynn Williams, intern at the Serve Center, helped coordinate the 2021 Big Event along with fellow intern Mollie Lamzik. Willaims said this was her first year working with the Big Event, but has worked with the Serve Center for three years.
Williams says in normal years, the Serve Center would team up with the Greek Week committee, and would get a turnout of about 200 students and about 100 work sites requesting assistance.
Williams said that this year’s Big Event had to be cancelled due to inclement weather, but had 100 students signed up to participate with about 30 sites.
“It was different because with Covid we didn’t want it to be such a big event,” Williams said.
Williams said that they did not advertise the event as much as they did in the past to keep numbers down. They were aiming for more students than community sites “because we figured there would be less students volunteering.”
“It wasn’t more that we were worried about students getting sick, we just didn’t want the students to...infect the community site members”.
Williams said that turnout will “definitely” bounce back once the pandemic has improved.
“Last year we had to cancel for COVID too, so it’s been two years since we’ve been able to have the Big Event, so I think that a lot of community members are really looking forward to a normal year. I think we’ll get a lot more participation because people have been waiting for it,” Williams said.