UW-Eau Claire programs warming hearts and winters through donation drive

Additional supplies, such as warm socks, nonperishable snacks and travel-size hygiene items, will be organized into packages by Civil Rights Pilgrimage participants before they depart for their immersion trip. The donations will be distributed to the Day Resource Center in Eau Claire in support of those experiencing homelessness.

Donations can be dropped at the Fostering Success office in Room 219 of Schofield Hall through Nov. 20. FranChesca Riley, program specialist for Fostering Success and coordinator for the Civil Rights Pilgrimage, says every single item is significant.

“Whether you drop off two handwarmers or a bag of socks, every little action matters,” she says. “It counts and it’s going to do something amazing.”

The initiative began with service-learning in mind. Each year, participants of the Civil Rights Pilgrimage perform 15 hours of service-learning, divided equally between the fall semester and the nearly two-week trip through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee in January.

Coordinators for this year’s journey chose to create care packages for unhoused people in the community, similar to the drive Fostering Success holds to support its students each year. That excited Riley, who says the best way to make a difference is by bringing everyone together.

“It is really cool that students are just as excited to be doing something specifically in our community on top of what we’re going to do in Selma on the actual trip,” she says.

Pilgrimage students held bake sales and fundraising events with Panda Express and Chipotle earlier in the semester to raise more than $500. Those funds will purchase items needed to complete the packages after the donation drive concludes.

On Dec. 2, nearly 50 people are expected to gather to assemble the packages, including fourth-year student Javiera Granillo Vazquez, lead student coordinator for the Civil Rights Pilgrimage. She hopes to personalize the gifts as just transporting them does not justify the full experience.

“Having that personable touch, knowing that somebody was there to curate it for you and had the intention to make sure your needs were met without any expectation out of it I think is really heartfelt,” says the integrative visual arts major from Eau Claire. “You may not have family that surrounds you, so knowing somebody is thinking of you without you knowing about it is very impactful.”

Granillo Vazquez is also one of 57 students in the Fostering Success program. She says the everyday needs of struggling students are often disregarded or misunderstood, but knowing communities of support exist without an expectation to give back has empowered individuals like her to expand and elevate themselves without harm.

“Going to Fostering Success and knowing my needs are immediately met when I come here is very comforting and really pushes me to keep succeeding as a student,” Granillo Vazquez says. “Also knowing I’m able to take my experience from the Civil Rights Pilgrimage and apply that to my life outside of being at the university is very insightful and makes me excited to be a community member.”

First-year student Olivia Butler is serving as an intern for Fostering Success this semester and will embark on her first Civil Rights Pilgrimage in January. She says the opportunity to give back to the community through the drive makes her feel like a better person.

She adds that a gift as small as a pair of gloves can make a world of difference for a student without support.

“It can just help them be able to get to campus, and that helps them study and then therefore they graduate. That can be the thing that gets them through it, and you don't even know it,” the psychology major says. “It is the small things that add up that eventually in the end could make someone's life possible.”