Community Service
Honors Business Students Raise Funds for Mexican Orphans
MBAs once again defeat competition in eighth annual "Food Fight"
Honors Business Students Raise Funds for Mexican Orphans
During the 2003-04 academic year, students from the 2003 Honors Business Program in Mérida, Mexico successfully raised over $1,000 for the Hogar de Niños del Ejercito de la Salvación (Salvation Army children's home) in Mérida. The money will be used to buy a copy machine for the orphanage, which shelters 35 boys ages 7 to 18.
The copy machine will help the Casa Hogar save money throughout the year. Currently, the center spends part of its limited resources at commercial copy centers for the copying of materials for homework for the children as well as for required forms for taxes, business filings, and other government reporting.
Thanks, Fazoli's!
Jennifer Wein, an accounting major and a 2003 Mérida program participant, was chairperson for the fundraising project. She and Jeannine Lee, also a 2004 participant, organized a variety of fundraising events, including a series of three all-you-can-eat spaghetti nights at Fazoli's restaurant on South Cedar in Lansing. For every customer that ordered the special, Fazoli's donated a dollar to the cause. Students were also able to tell customers about the program and the fundraiser, resulting in many more donations.
Students also had a car wash at the H&H Mobil on the corner of Haslett and Hagadorn Roads to raise money for the children. Additionally, students collected money by selling candy bars in various campus offices during Spring semester. Colorful envelopes with pictures of the Mexican children were used to collect donations so that people were able to learn about the Casa Hogar. Finally, a collection canister was placed at Aldaco's, a Mexican restaurant on South Cedar, in which customers could make donations when paying for their meal.
Every donation helps
Professor Paulette Stenzel, who has led this program since 2001 says, "We are grateful to the managers of Fazoli's, H&H Mobil, and Aldaco's, and every individual who has donated to this fund-raising effort. I am proud of our Spartans for 'giving back' something to the Mexican community. Every year, Merida's business leaders, government officials, and citizens welcome us as we come to learn more about 'Doing Business in Mexico.'
"Each year, I ask my students to carry half of a suitcase full of paper," she says, "pencils, toys, clothing, and other donations to the Casa Hogar. The students and I collect such donations in the East Lansing-area community. The addition of a check to meet an important need at the Casa Hogar makes our 'thank you' to the Merida community a bit more complete."
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MBAs once again defeat competition in eighth annual "Food Fight"
By collecting more food than any other MBA program overall and on a per-student basis, the Broad School's full-time MBA program defended its championship status in the National Food Fight competition.
Thanks to an outstanding effort by all Broad students and to the generous participation of faculty, staff and the greater Lansing community, 228,568 lbs. of food was collected for the Lansing Area Red Cross Food Bank, an affiliate of Second Harvest. The 19 MBA programs that participated in 2003 (including Michigan, Northwestern, Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Wharton, Dartmouth, Duke, Virginia, Yale and others) collected a total of 773,518 lbs. of food for local food banks, and the Broad School contributed nearly a third of the total donations collected for this event. This was accomplished with the smallest full-time MBA student population among these premier MBA programs.
Michigan State's MBA students also won in 2002, collecting a total of 162,000 pounds of food. This was the fifth year the program has been a part of the National Food Fight competition.
"It has become a tradition for us to win this event," says Associate Dean for MBA Programs John Delaney. "Not just because we enjoy a triumph over other top business schools, but mostly because we feel like we're helping those in need who are right here in our backyard."
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