In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the UW-Whitewater Business Learning Communities decided to raise funds for the Whitewater Food Pantry. The money donated will go towards purchasing ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal the Whitewater Food Pantry will supply to community members on Nov. 24.

The five learning communities involved, “Technically Speaking,” “Green Business,” “Everybody’s Business,” “Calculated Careers” and “Conscious Capitalists,” competed from Nov. 1 to 18 to see which group could raise the most funds. The “Everybody’s Business” learning community director, Eric Roche, said the friendly competition spurred his students to get involved.

“I merely gave them the handout,” Roche said. “They just took it and ran.”

As of last Friday, Roche’s 23 learning community students raised between $500 and $600 and more than 200 food items to be donated to the food pantry.

Roche said freshman Michael Baum was the one to step up as head of the fundraising committee.

“I wanted to give back to the community,” Baum said. “I haven’t had time in the past to do things like this and this seemed like a great opportunity.”

Along with a $100 donation from the UW Credit Union, Baum’s learning community made T-shirts, bracelets and held a bake sale to raise funds.

Yesterday, “Everybody’s Business” hand-delivered an oversized check to the Whitewater Food Pantry and was able to meet with members to explain their cause.

The total fundraising amount and the winning learning community will be announced today. All business students involved were able to count this fundraiser towards their required community service hours needed to graduate as business students.

Baum said the experience was well worth the time and effort the students put in.

“Everyone deserves a good Thanksgiving meal,” Baum said. “It’s great that we can give it to them.”



@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }@font-face { font-family: “Times-Roman”; }@font-face { font-family: “TimesNewRomanPSMT”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.BasicParagraph, li.BasicParagraph, div.BasicParagraph { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 120%; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times-Roman; color: black; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }