Rooted in service: How Aquinas is giving back to the community

By Lauren Lyle, Student Reporter

Aquinas has been giving back to the community in many ways this season, including various food drives that partners with multiple organizations, and a partnership with Mel Trotter Ministries for clothing, food, and monetary donations for the homeless of Grand Rapids.

Mel Trotter Ministries is a Christian organization that exists to show the compassion of Christ to anyone facing hunger or homelessness. They offer a variety of services such as shelter, preventative education, and even jobs for the homeless to help people get back on their feet.

Professor Mark O’Toole’s marketing students have been designing and implementing marketing proposals to gather donations for Mel Trotter Ministries. The students were split into groups of four and each group was challenged to collect 10,000 dollars worth of clothing, non-perishables, or monetary donations by the end of the assignment.

Piles of donations collected so far are stored in the basement of the academic building – Photos by Lauren Lyle

“We’ve exceeded that goal. We’ve raised a little more than 24,000 dollars worth of donations,” said Aquinas student Anais Rodriguez. Her group’s personal goal was to reach 15,000 dollars worth of donations. “In the beginning we just asked around to our family and I asked my roommate and my suitemates if they had anything they wanted to donate, and Morgan [Foune], she was in our group, asked her high school to participate and she raised donations from them.”

Aquinas student Catherine Hoff’s group has so far collected roughly 43,500 dollars, and as there is still time left in the project, this number could continue to rise. All of the groups have been greatly exceeding expectations with their projects so far and continue to impress their professor and their community.

Donation collection boxes outside of the OLLI classroom – Photo by Lauren Lyle

The project began in early October and has grown beyond being a campus-wide event. Students have taken it to the local community and their hometowns to collect donations that way.

“Our strategies were putting together a giving tree in the library for people to take a leaf and then bring back the donation, displaying donation boxes at churches or businesses, and running a canned food drive through an elementary school,” said Hoff.

Most of the groups focused on clothing donations over money or food. Peyton Scott’s group decided to focus on building relationships as opposed to just going out and asking for donations or money. They decided to make connections with the OLLI foundation here at Aquinas.

“We went to OLLI and presented a slideshow to tell the organization just what our mission as a whole was,” said Scott. “To sum it up, we wanted to create relationships and build up trust in the community so that we could give the utmost respect and quality support to the ministries.”

One group of students collected donations through athletics. The Mel Trotter basketball tournament was organized to raise money via the entrance fee of the 3-on-3 teams. There were posters all over the academic building, Sturrus, and the library, advertising the event and displaying the cause and sign-up method. This was organized for students to play in, and for other students and community members to watch, all to support Mel Trotter Ministries’ cause.

Students who participated in the Mel Trotter Ministries Basketball game – photo by Morgan Foune

Hoops for Hope bracket winners from left to right: Jon Popp, Zack Dingwell and Logan Dunbar with their prizes – photo by Morgan Foune

Students also agree that this project has brought the community closer together and taught them new things about the services that it offers for people of various socioeconomic statuses. Before doing this project, several students had minimal experience with homelessness.

“After moving to Grand Rapids for college I had a truly eye opening experience and wanted nothing more than to be able to make an immediate impact with my team. I feel like we have been able to do just that and it’s been a great feeling helping these individuals,” Scott said.

“This project was truly heartwarming because it showed just how willing people are to help others in need. Many were eager to donate and support those who are less fortunate. I learned that raising awareness about what’s happening in your community—and offering a clear, meaningful way to make a difference—is one of the most effective ways to inspire people to get involved.” said Foune, when asked about some of the things she learned from this project.

“Overall, this project became more than just an assignment for me, or just a project needed to pass this course. It became more so an opportunity to give back, and help those in need which is something I enjoy doing wholeheartedly. It also taught me to not get discouraged when a bar is set high, and when you actually apply yourself and commit to completing something, it’s possible,” Joseph Russau said. While this specific project is operating out of the business department, specifically Professor O’Toole’s marketing students, other departments at AQ are doing similar things. AQ’s Psychology Honor Society is doing another drive with Family Promise of West Michigan which they are running until the end of the semester. Donations can be brought to the Psychology Suite in the Basement of AB and they have posters up around campus advertising this drive.

Family Promise works with families that have children and are facing homelessness or housing instability to provide the basic needs that they might need while in shelters, moving housing situations, or just going through hard changes.

No matter what department is putting on these events, Aquinas is finding lots of ways to give back to our community and surpassing expectations of the quantity and quality of how we can do it.