SU law students devise creative way to raise funds for Katrina relief effort

SU law students devise creative way to raise funds for Katrina relief effortSeptember 22, 2005Jaime Winne Alvarez jlwinne@syr.edu

Like many of their peers, Syracuse University College of Law third-year students and roommates Lindsey Duerst and Angela Cruz felt they needed to give back in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. For Cruz, a New Orleans native, the motivation to do something positive ran particularly deep because her own home was part of the devastation. “We felt personally inspired to do something,” says Cruz. “We wanted a relief effort that would mobilize the entire student body, faculty, staff and campus to take what we felt on a personal basis and move it to a more global scale.”

The pair devised a creative way to raise funds for the American Red Cross-a campus-wide donation drive in which participants who donate $10 receive a specially designed T-shirt in return for their charity. Working with Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), a group that Duerst belongs to that gives students the opportunity to apply business knowledge gained in the classroom to solve real-world problems, they secured corporate sponsorship from Federated Department Stores, Inc., which operates Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, to aid in the production of the shirts.

SIFE will collect donations in the lobby of the Schine Student Center, at Hendricks Chapel and outside the second floor cafeteria at the College of Law, Oct. 3-7 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. For their $10 contribution, donors will receive a limited edition T-shirt designed by Dennis Taussig, the husband of SIFE faculty advisor Amanda Nicholson. Duerst says they hope to hold another donation drive on campus during Parents Weekend, Oct. 29-30.