By Bruce Garlinghouse
While many UP students lounge by the pool or take it easy when school is out, some UP students spend their spring breaks and summers serving others.
Last Saturday, the Moreau Center for Service and Leadership held its first Benefit Brunch to raise money for its service learning trips.
So far, between ticket sales and additional donations from those who attended, the brunch has made over $2,300 dollars, and more is coming in.
"This is the first time we've ever done a joint event like this," said Michelle Chang, the program coordinator who planned the event.
The keynote speaker at the brunch was 2009 alumna and valedictorian Rachel Prusynski, who survived the January earthquake in Haiti.
Prusynski, who was heavily involved with the Moreau Center as a student, spoke about the powerful influence it had in her life.
She also spoke about how it influenced the life of friend and fellow alumna Molly Hightower, who was volunteering with orphans in Haiti and died in the quake.
All proceeds from the brunch went to help finance the various service learning trips UP students take through the Moreau Center.
These include the Nicaragua Immersion, the Alaska Plunge, the Border Plunge to Mexico and Arizona, the Collegiate Challenge with Habitat for Humanity and the Civil Rights Immersion in the South.
In the past, money was raised separately for each program. This year the Moreau Center decided it would be a good idea to have a unified event that would benefit all of the trips.
According to junior Laura Burchett, coordinator of the Civil Rights Immersion, fundraising was not the only benefit of the brunch.
"In addition to the money, it also created a lot of community between the separate trips," Burchett said.
Burchett said she was surprised to hear about a lot of the things the groups were doing during their respective service trips.
"It was really great to hear about what everybody was doing and to see how many people outside the program supported us," Burchett said.
Change and Burchett agreed the event was a success.
"We were really happy with how things went and we're definitely planning to make this an annual thing," Burchett said.
