Lafayette Students Raise $5,000 for Local Nonprofits

By Stephen Wilson

Showing support in the virtual world is hard when students are used to being on-site, rolling up their sleeves and helping community partners fulfill their missions.

That’s when students from the Landis Center for Community Engagement had to find new ways to help in a time of need.

Student leaders Emily Cotter ’21, Annie Krege ’23, and Kevin Manogue ’22 organized three fundraisers to aid three local nonprofits. Each organization was focused on assisting community members with food and housing insecurities during COVID-19.

“Food and housing insecurity are among the biggest impacts the COVID-19 pandemic is having on our community, so we intentionally chose organizations that served the community in these ways,” says Krege.

The fundraisers supported Second Harvest Food Bank, Safe Harbor, and ProJeCt of Easton. 

Over the course of the spring semester, Landis partnered with several co-sponsors, including Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Phi, Chi Phi, Delta Gamma, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Kappa Psi, Pi Beta Phi, International Student Association, Alpha Phi Omega, and Sheesh.

“Landis Center chose to support our community partners with fundraising this semester as a way to show support in this new virtual world,” says Cotter. “The pandemic has changed the way that students can work with our community partners. Since we are not able to support our community patterns in person, we wanted to find another way to support them.”

Students, co-sponsors, and organizations promoted the fundraisers in social media channels and directed donors to a Venmo page.

Total dollars raised hit well over $5,000.

While it may not be the way students want to engage in the community as volunteers and research partners, the fundraiser made their commitment clear.

“Sponsoring fundraisers on their behalf allowed us to stay connected with the community virtually,” adds Manogue.