Blanca Morales/Contributing Writer
The idea was spur of the moment.
When Zahra Arbabi Aski, president of the Student Alumni Association, planned events for the 2011-2012 year, SAA Traditions Chair Catherine Vega was suddenly inspired with the idea to create Councils for a Cause, a committee that unites all student organizations on campus to work as a philanthropy.
It was a light bulb moment for her.
Vega, an international relations and psychology senior, had participated in charitable events such as Relay for Life with her sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon, but she noted most events either took place at the Modesto Maidique Campus or were hosted by MMC-based organizations.
“It was about time we brought a big philanthropic event to the Biscayne Bay Campus,” Vega said.
Consisting of a roundtable of student leaders from various clubs and organizations, Councils for a Cause has no president or officers; it is only moderated by the two founders. The committee, which is open to everyone and anyone interested, also has non-University team members as well.
“I thought [Councils for a Cause] would be a good idea to do, to have a community service event with everyone involved,” said Vega, who is also president of the Student Programming Council at BBC.
Councils for a Cause is using Facebook, Orgsync and other marketing tools for promotion. Emails and phone calls were made to faculty, staff and campus organization for cooperation and sponsorship. Team members want to see all of the University community supporting the cause.
Officers of other student organizations have been urging their members to take on an active role by fundraising and passing collection cans around campus for charity’s sake, but also for the sake of competition, which is one of the incentives.
As previously reported by The Beacon, All Nighter for the Poor was first held at the Biscayne Bay Campus on Nov. 19, 2010 but saw a lackluster turn out, which was a point that Rafael Zapata, advisor to the Student Government Council at the Biscayne Bay Campus brought up during the University Wide Activity and Service Fee allocation meeting on July 30.
Councils for a Case will pick the event up in an effort to reestablish it.
Zapata admitted last year’s event “did not have good attendance numbers,” and the responsibilities fell completely onto a single member of SGC-BCC, Shana Kaplan, who was the 2009-10 SGC-BBC comptroller.
SGC-BBC then moved to give All Nighter for the Poor a second chance with $5,000.01 to go towards the organization of the event, even though at the time no leadership had been in place for it.
Emilio Collyer, SGC-BBC vice president, was reluctant to scrap All Nighter for the Poor completely because of his predecessors’ inability to properly organize the event.
“It would be disheartening to me to just throw away an entire event because it failed on its first year,” said Collyer.
The goal of the All Nighter for the Poor is to raise $5,000 to make a pangasius pond in Haiti to help the agriculture of the village it is built in. Given the proper feeding and management, pangasius, a member of the catfish family, can grow to be between two to three pounds in five to six months time, which is why it was chosen since it grows fast and is much easier to maintain than other fish, such as tilapia.
Clubs and student teams competing with one another will see who will reel in the largest sum and greatest participation on Friday night.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Szydlo.
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