Clubs collaborate on charity project

The Inter Club Community Fundraiser will run from April 7 to April 17, with each club hosting its own fundraising project. The effort was coordinated by the Pace Council for Civic Values, a student-run group within the Pace Center. The fundraiser will benefit the Food Justice Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to promote healthy living and provide affordable produce to low-income areas.

This project has been in the making for many months, organizers said. Throughout the fall, PCCV co-chair and ICCF organizer Haley White ’12 reached out to the eating clubs and their respective community service chairs and “asked if we could get together for coffee so that I could learn more about their work.”

“I was particularly interested in learning how the clubs pursued civic engagement and what the PCCV could do to better support them,” White — a former opinion columnist for The Daily Princetonian — said in an email.

White wound up meeting with eight club chairs who all echoed the desire for opportunities for interclub civic engagement. “I then asked them how they would organize an interclub program based on their experiences in-office,” White explained. “Using their suggestions, I designed the Inter Club Community Fundraiser, which I pitched to the ICC in February.”

In addition to raising money for the FJF, the ICCF aims to promote more general engagement on campus, White added. “The mission of PCCV is to promote a culture of active citizenship at Princeton,” White explained. “To fulfill our mission, we need to not only promote the efforts of student organizations that are devoted to civic engagement, but also find a place for engagement in Princeton’s most important social institutions. Last year, we built relationships with the residential college civic engagement and service chairs. This year, we decided it was time to work with the eating clubs.”

While White acknowledged that civic engagement is already a presence on the Street, “we just do not hear very much about it,” she said.

“I hope that the ICCF will mark the start of a sustained commitment to visible engagement at the eating clubs,” she said. “In the future, I wish to see the clubs unite not only for fundraising and awareness-raising activities on the Street, but also community service projects off the Street.”

White noted that “the clubs have been fantastic.”

“They are our partners,” she explained. “The ICCF would not be possible without their full participation.”

This initiative is the first undertaken in recent years on the Street. White noted that she had to build new institutional ties, and Associate Dean in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students Maria Flores-Mills explained that while there have been similar initiatives in years past, namely Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the ICCF is the most well-organized and well-orchestrated. All events held at the clubs will be alcohol-free and many are open to nonmembers. Each club will hold an event with a distinct flavor. “What’s great about this Street-wide community service project is that all the clubs are working together for a common goal, but we as clubs get to do so in a manner that reflects our club’s individual personality in one way or another,” Cloister Inn and ICC president Jake Sally ’12 said in an email.

According to Sally, Cloister will host a three-on-three beach volleyball tournament open to all members of the University community. The tournament will be co-hosted by Cap & Gown Club.

Quadrangle Club president Julia Blount ’12 said in an email that the club will host a Karaoke Night open to both University students and prefrosh during the upcoming Princeton Preview weekend.

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Colonial Club president Susan Zhang ’12 explained in an email that the club currently plans to hold a bake sale, also during Princeton Preview, open to all members of the University community as well as prospective students and parents. “We will be planning more fundraising events for the upcoming weeks (with our members) as senior theses are getting turned in,” she added.

Tiger Inn president Jeff Cole ’12 said that the club is organizing an event for its members. “We are creating class boards where members donate $5 to put their handprint, name, etc., on a TI board,” he said in an email.”

Charter Club president Daniel Fletcher ’12 explained in an email that the club is conducting an ongoing fundraising event in which both members and nonmembers vote to see a member “get pied in the face with a shaving cream pie.”

“We initially had 13 contestants, each of whom had a bowl, and the members placed money in the bowl of whichever contestant they would most like to see pied. The top three contestants with the most money in their bowls will get pied,” Fletcher explained. He also noted that the event has raised about $300 thus far. “Since it is a continuing event, nonmembers are more than welcome to come and try to tip the scales toward one contestant or another,” he added.

Tower Club president Joey Barnett ’12 said in an email that the club will hold its annual Bachelor Auction, open to both members and nonmembers, and give all profits to the ICCF.

“This is a tradition that we have carried out multiple times for charity fundraising, but we are excited to merge it with a Street-wide initiative to magnify the effect of our contribution,” explained Barnett, who is also an associate editor for opinion for the ‘Prince.’

Terrace Club president Ricardo Lopez ’12 said that Terrace is planning “something along the lines of a pagan festival,” open to everyone including prefrosh, with live performers and a small admission fee. The club is also looking into a bake sale and an event that would allow students to pay a small fee to smash a junkyard car with a sledgehammer to “de-stress after JPs and theses.”

Other events include a non-club-affiliated produce sale, a members-only day of service in Trenton organized through Cottage Club, and yet-to-be announced events at Ivy Club.