October 2005 ISSUE

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Mark Skovmose

STUDENT COLUMNS

Fundraisers, Mentorship
Can Keep Alumni Close to U of C Roots

I pose the question, how can alumni remain connected with the university spirit? One of the simplest answers lies within helping others.

Fundraising for charity and mentorship may seem daunting, but fortunately the university has many of these programs already created.

Mentorship programs match student and professional according to availability and commitment levels. Even the presence of an experienced professional as a sounding board for students can make a huge impact.

Bring on the Bling Bling Top, the wheelbarrow is filled. Bottom, frosh students hoist their student leader, Candice Barnowsky, during the Big Squeeze, a Red Friday challenge.

Fundraisers are run throughout the year by numerous societies and are an excellent source of publicity for any company wanting to give back to the community. They’re also simple enjoyment for employees.

New students lack a con-nection to university entirely, and U of C 101, the orientation program, is in place to alleviate their anxiety. The frosh metamorphosis over three days is astounding — attitudes lighten and confidence grows, as frosh learn relate to university life.

Frosh are exposed immediately to the positive attitude of humanitarianism through Bling Bling, a fundraiser for cystic fibrosis.

Fresh Hope
Throughout the three-day orientation, eight teams vie to collect pennies for their score and silver and bills for the other teams. Pennies count as a positive point each, and denominations above a penny count as negative ($20 = -2,000 points). Scores are typically in the tens to hundreds of thousands on the negative side, as pennies add much slower than bills.

This year engineering hosted the Engg Revenge, an effort to collect all the silver money intended for other faculties and convert it to pennies. Nearly 1,000 people crowded around the final “coin off" — standing in awe as we wheeled in with about 114,600 pennies, and $217 in other bills in two wheelbarrows.

There was such a buzz that every other faculty tried its best to bring our score back to negative by putting bunches of bills in engineering buckets.

In total, Bling Bling raised $8,474 — with nearly $2,700 spurred by the Engg Revenge. The final standings left engineering in last place in terms of points — but still ecstatic to have raised so much for the cause.

Red Friday
The last day, known as Red Friday, also hosted the first Inter-faculty games. Rain brought the games indoors, but the enthusiasm remained strong.

One particular event, the Big Squeeze, had teams get as many students inside a two-meter circle as possible. Laughter echoed while students packed themselves in an interlocked mass.

The Schulich School of Engineering was named the first winner of the inter-faculty cup. Congratulations, frosh and student leaders. This is the spirit the alumni yearn to keep.