Boxes piled with clothes and packages stuffed with food were a sign of the Student Association's annual clothing drive being put into high gear this past Saturday.
The clothing and canned goods donated to the drive are dispersed to the Buffalo community.
"It benefits the Buffalo city mission, a non-profit organization that provides food and clothing to underprivileged families in the area," said Alison Merner, SA club services director.
In order to increase donations, SA has given its clubs a challenge that began in October and ends mid-November so that the donations will be ready in time for Thanksgiving.
"It's a competition between clubs," Merner said. "This is a really good opportunity for SA and its clubs to reach out and make a positive influence on the Buffalo community."
The system for points is based on the amount of goods brought in by the pound. Both 10 pounds of clothing and 20 pounds of canned goods are worth 1 point each. The team with the most points in the end will win a monetary prize. In this sense, the clubs are doing a type of fundraising activity to not only benefit their community but also to benefit their own club.
"We get a lot of canned vegetables, a lot of soup, macaroni and cheese and ramen," Merner said. "The typical college student food."
Last year over 2 tons of goods were raised for the city's needs. The Latin American Student Association (LASA) contributed about 180 lbs. of that total.
This year, the heaviest donation was 110.6 pounds of canned goods from the Haitian SA.
"The most interesting thing we've gotten so far was 3.2 pounds of individual packages of grape jelly," Merner said.
Kevin Baboolal, president of the Engineer Cooperative Society, was around Saturday to help box the goods and ship them out. This is one of three organizations that volunteered to help pack the boxes.
"A lot of heavy lifting and a lot of sorting went into today," Baboolal said. "Especially clothes, the room was filled with clothes."
Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED) and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) also pitched in their time, along with their goods, to the cause.
"It's one of the programs we like to incorporate to help the community," said Ledum Nordee, president of NSBE.
In order to boost the number of contributions to the drive, clubs gathered donations from their members and people outside of UB. According to Nordee, they advertised to the general public to increase participation.
"We put the word out," Baboolal said. "A lot of it is ours, some of it is our friends. Everyone helped out really."
For people involved with the drive, one of the most challenging tasks is getting people to partake in the event, especially outside of the organizations.
"My message to the UB community is try to get as involved as you can because there are people who are in more of a greater need than we are," Nordee said.
Last year's winners were Green Eggs and Ham, more widely known as the Ultimate Frisbee team.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
