Bell Sympatico
Headlines (Campus Updates)
WLU
Laurier co-op students help raise $30,000 for Bell’s Walk for Kids Help Phone
Public Affairs
Jun 20/06
Seven Laurier business co-op students have helped to raise $30,000 for Bell’s Walk for Kids Help Phone, a charity that offers toll-free, 24-hour counselling services for youths. The co-op students, who spent their last semester in Toronto working for Bell Sympatico, were charged with the task of running Bell’s annual charity event.
The Bell co-op students, who were also from the universities of Waterloo, Dalhousie and Toronto, were given complete ownership of the task, with creative freedom and $2,000 in seed money to get started. Their goal was to generate awareness and collect $30,000 in pledges from the employees at Bell’s Queen's Quay office, where they worked.
Laurier students Cole Mason, Raj Grewal, Paul Hwang, Elise Gasbarrino and Noorin Dossa participated in the Bell charity event, along with Jaxon King, Kristen Lewarne and Andrew Klotz, who took on challenging leadership roles. King was in charge of promoting awareness, while Lewarne was responsible for collecting pledges. Klotz took on the communications role, with responsibilities that included organizing employees into teams.
“It was tough,” says Lewarne, “but the Laurier students really stepped up to the task.”
“We worked really hard,” adds King. “Everyone did. But the Laurier students really went the extra mile. We’d extend our day or come in early to put in extra time. Even though the fundraiser wasn’t part of our job description, it was still our task.”
“As a Laurier student, volunteering something we just do automatically,” explains Lewarne. “Look at Shinerama and volunteer programs such as ERT (Emergency Response Team) or FOOT Patrol – those would be paying jobs at a lot of other schools, but we have so many dedicated volunteers at Laurier who want to do their part.”
“We aspire to do our own thing, but recognize that we can also give back to the community,” Klotz adds. “That’s one of Laurier's pillars.”
For the charity event, the students put together a pledge website to keep people motivated, and sent out awareness emails to let everyone know who was “winning the race” and who needed to “pick up the pace.” At the end, they gave a prize pack to the winning team.
They also had two auctions over the course of their work term, which brought in over a third of their goal. The co-op students were worried that they weren’t going to make their lofty goal, but the big auction they held toward the end pushed them past $30,000.
“If you try your best,” says Lewarne, “everything will fall into place. Even at the beginning of it all when we had to present our ideas to all the employees, it was intimidating but ended up being a really good experience.”
“It was the first time I had spoken to hundreds of people,” recalls Klotz. “It puts us co-ops in the spotlight. I learned to always stay positive and keep your enthusiasm. There’s nothing better to help gain experience.”
“The main reason I came to Laurier was for the co-op,” King says. “Laurier had a perfect campus size with a sense of community, but in terms of co-op, Laurier’s already developed a good image with many companies. This kind of experience you can’t get in the classroom.”
For more information on Laurier’s co-op program, visit www.wlu.ca/co-op.
Mallory O'Brien
Public Affairs
