Caroline Courville bought 12 packs of ramen noodles. As the daughter of a veteran, she couldn’t miss her chance to help those who serve her country.
“I love helping the troops…especially since my dad is a veteran, and I would do anything to help them,” said Courville, a junior marketing major.
Student Government Association presidents in the Louisiana University System chose Operation Shoebox for their annual community service project.
Operation Shoebox is an organization dedicated to providing care and support to soldiers abroad and here at home.
It gives students like Courville an opportunity to provide physical items to the troops deployed around the world.
This year, donated items flooded the SGA office. Last year, a similar drive for the military was held, but it didn’t raise anywhere close to what was raised this year, according to SGA president Kaitlin Neal Arnett.
With the holiday season approaching, SGA made the drive a competition among registered student organizations (RSOs) to
collect items for the military. ere was a list of items that the RSOs could donate including toothbrushes, toothpaste, granola bars, playing cards, Pop-Tarts and handmade cards. RSOs were given points based on the items they donated.
SGA Vice President Bryson Belaire, senior pre-pharmacy major, said that the winning RSOs will get a cash prize of $300, $200 and $100 dollars for first, second and third positions respectively.
“To make it fun and interesting, we made it a competition among the RSOs,” Belaire said.
Friday morning the votes were counted and the winner was clear, Alpha Omicron Pi sorority had won the first place prize by a margin of 764 points, almost double what second place winner Phi Mu brought in. Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity
came in third place. Charlotte Meyer, president of AOII, said her sorority wanted to honor the military in any way they could and that sisters were encouraged to donate as many items as possible.
“We are really excited to win, but even more excited to know that our donations will go towards such a great cause,” she said.
Bryan Deloach, sophomore criminal justice major and member of Pi Kappa Alpha, also saw the fundraiser as an opportunity to help the veterans.
“We had a lot of people who donated,” Deloach said.
“I… and four of my brothers stopped by to donate some more items.”
Deloach hopes that the veterans feel more con dent to serve the nation after they get the gifts.
Bryce Bordelon, SGA treasurer and junior construction management major, said that the collected items would be taken to the Operation Shoebox hub in Monroe. The Operation Shoebox members would take care of the delivery.
“It would hopefully make the holidays away from home easier for them. We are thankful (for) all of their service,” Bordelon said.
